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Experimental evolution of recombination and crossover interference in Drosophila caused by directional selection for stress-related traits

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Biology, November 2015
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Title
Experimental evolution of recombination and crossover interference in Drosophila caused by directional selection for stress-related traits
Published in
BMC Biology, November 2015
DOI 10.1186/s12915-015-0206-5
Pubmed ID
Authors

Dau Dayal Aggarwal, Eugenia Rashkovetsky, Pawel Michalak, Irit Cohen, Yefim Ronin, Dan Zhou, Gabriel G. Haddad, Abraham B. Korol

Abstract

Population genetics predicts that tight linkage between new and/or pre-existing beneficial and deleterious alleles should decrease the efficiency of natural selection in finite populations. By decoupling beneficial and deleterious alleles and facilitating the combination of beneficial alleles, recombination accelerates the formation of high-fitness genotypes. This may impose indirect selection for increased recombination. Despite the progress in theoretical understanding, interplay between recombination and selection remains a controversial issue in evolutionary biology. Even less satisfactory is the situation with crossover interference, which is a deviation of double-crossover frequency in a pair of adjacent intervals from the product of recombination rates in the two intervals expected on the assumption of crossover independence. Here, we report substantial changes in recombination and interference in three long-term directional selection experiments with Drosophila melanogaster: for desiccation (~50 generations), hypoxia, and hyperoxia tolerance (>200 generations each). For all three experiments, we found a high interval-specific increase of recombination frequencies in selection lines (up to 40-50 % per interval) compared to the control lines. We also discovered a profound effect of selection on interference as expressed by an increased frequency of double crossovers in selection lines. Our results show that changes in interference are not necessarily coupled with increased recombination. Our results support the theoretical predictions that adaptation to a new environment can promote evolution toward higher recombination. Moreover, this is the first evidence of selection for different recombination-unrelated traits potentially leading, not only to evolution toward increased crossover rates, but also to changes in crossover interference, one of the fundamental features of recombination.

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Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
United States 1 2%
Netherlands 1 2%
Unknown 61 97%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Ph. D. Student 17 27%
Researcher 13 21%
Student > Master 7 11%
Student > Bachelor 6 10%
Professor 3 5%
Other 6 10%
Unknown 11 17%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 33 52%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 11 17%
Computer Science 2 3%
Mathematics 2 3%
Medicine and Dentistry 2 3%
Other 2 3%
Unknown 11 17%