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Neutral and adaptive explanations for an association between caste-biased gene expression and rate of sequence evolution.

Helanterä, Heikki and Uller, Tobias LU (2014) In Frontiers in Genetics 5. p.1-297
Abstract
The castes of social insects provide outstanding opportunities to address the causes and consequences of evolution of discrete phenotypes, i.e., polymorphisms. Here we focus on recently described patterns of a positive association between the degree of caste-specific gene expression and the rate of sequence evolution. We outline how neutral and adaptive evolution can cause genes that are morph-biased in their expression profiles to exhibit historical signatures of faster or slower sequence evolution compared to unbiased genes. We conclude that evaluation of different hypotheses will benefit from (i) reconstruction of the phylogenetic origin of biased expression and changes in rates of sequence evolution, and (ii) replicated data on gene... (More)
The castes of social insects provide outstanding opportunities to address the causes and consequences of evolution of discrete phenotypes, i.e., polymorphisms. Here we focus on recently described patterns of a positive association between the degree of caste-specific gene expression and the rate of sequence evolution. We outline how neutral and adaptive evolution can cause genes that are morph-biased in their expression profiles to exhibit historical signatures of faster or slower sequence evolution compared to unbiased genes. We conclude that evaluation of different hypotheses will benefit from (i) reconstruction of the phylogenetic origin of biased expression and changes in rates of sequence evolution, and (ii) replicated data on gene expression variation within versus between morphs. Although the data are limited at present, we suggest that the observed phylogenetic and intra-population variation in gene expression lends support to the hypothesis that the association between caste-biased expression and rate of sequence evolution largely is a result of neutral processes. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Frontiers in Genetics
volume
5
pages
1 - 297
publisher
Frontiers Media S. A.
external identifiers
  • pmid:25221570
  • scopus:84906273418
  • pmid:25221570
  • wos:000347453800001
ISSN
1664-8021
DOI
10.3389/fgene.2014.00297
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
fc3bd18c-f07a-4fb1-a61f-6e2aad735b8f (old id 4691507)
date added to LUP
2016-04-01 13:41:25
date last changed
2022-03-21 19:52:54
@article{fc3bd18c-f07a-4fb1-a61f-6e2aad735b8f,
  abstract     = {{The castes of social insects provide outstanding opportunities to address the causes and consequences of evolution of discrete phenotypes, i.e., polymorphisms. Here we focus on recently described patterns of a positive association between the degree of caste-specific gene expression and the rate of sequence evolution. We outline how neutral and adaptive evolution can cause genes that are morph-biased in their expression profiles to exhibit historical signatures of faster or slower sequence evolution compared to unbiased genes. We conclude that evaluation of different hypotheses will benefit from (i) reconstruction of the phylogenetic origin of biased expression and changes in rates of sequence evolution, and (ii) replicated data on gene expression variation within versus between morphs. Although the data are limited at present, we suggest that the observed phylogenetic and intra-population variation in gene expression lends support to the hypothesis that the association between caste-biased expression and rate of sequence evolution largely is a result of neutral processes.}},
  author       = {{Helanterä, Heikki and Uller, Tobias}},
  issn         = {{1664-8021}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  pages        = {{1--297}},
  publisher    = {{Frontiers Media S. A.}},
  series       = {{Frontiers in Genetics}},
  title        = {{Neutral and adaptive explanations for an association between caste-biased gene expression and rate of sequence evolution.}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fgene.2014.00297}},
  doi          = {{10.3389/fgene.2014.00297}},
  volume       = {{5}},
  year         = {{2014}},
}