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Lineage-Specific Expression Divergence in Grasses Is Associated with Male Reproduction, Host-Pathogen Defense, and Domestication
- Source :
- Genome Biology and Evolution
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- Oxford University Press (OUP), 2018.
-
Abstract
- Poaceae (grasses) is an agriculturally important and widely distributed family of plants with extraordinary phenotypic diversity, much of which was generated under recent lineage-specific evolution. Yet, little is known about the genes and functional modules involved in the lineage-specific divergence of grasses. Here, I address this question on a genome-wide scale by applying a novel branch-based statistic of lineage-specific expression divergence, LED, to RNA-seq data from nine tissues of the wild grass Brachypodium distachyon and its domesticated relatives Oryza sativa japonica (rice) and Sorghum bicolor (sorghum). I find that LED is generally smallest in B. distachyon and largest in O. sativa japonica, which underwent domestication earlier than S. bicolor, supporting the hypothesis that domestication may increase the rate of lineage-specific expression divergence in grasses. Moreover, in all three species, LED is positively correlated with protein-coding sequence divergence and tissue specificity, and negatively correlated with network connectivity. Further analysis reveals that genes with large LED are often primarily expressed in anther, implicating lineage-specific expression divergence in the evolution of male reproductive phenotypes. Gene ontology enrichment analysis also identifies an overrepresentation of terms related to male reproduction in the two domesticated grasses, as well as to those involved in host-pathogen defense in all three species. Last, examinations of genes with the largest LED reveal that their lineage-specific expression divergence may have contributed to antimicrobial functions in B. distachyon, to enhanced adaptation and yield during domestication in O. sativa japonica, and to defense against a widespread and devastating fungal pathogen in S. bicolor. Together, these findings suggest that lineage-specific expression divergence in grasses may increase under domestication and preferentially target rapidly evolving genes involved in male reproduction, host-pathogen defense, and the origin of domesticated phenotypes.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
Letter
Gene Expression
Poaceae
010603 evolutionary biology
01 natural sciences
Japonica
Host-Parasite Interactions
Domestication
03 medical and health sciences
Species Specificity
Genetics
Gene
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
030304 developmental biology
0303 health sciences
Oryza sativa
lineage-specific evolution
biology
Host (biology)
Reproduction
food and beverages
biology.organism_classification
expression evolution
Evolutionary biology
Brachypodium distachyon
Adaptation
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 17596653
- Volume :
- 11
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Genome Biology and Evolution
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....7fb52ac985b8874cb7eaffc0885f6d5a