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Genetics, Vol. 177, 1023-1030, October 2007, Copyright © 2007
doi:10.1534/genetics.107.077503
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,1
* Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, Texas 78712 and
Section of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, California 95616
1 Corresponding author: Tulane Cancer Center, 1430 Tulane Ave., SL-68, New Orleans, LA 70112.
E-mail: bwagstaf{at}tulane.edu
| ABSTRACT |
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In Drosophila, empirical studies suggest that there is abundant genetic variation affecting traits related to male–male and male–female postcopulatory interactions (CLARK et al. 1995; RICE 1996; CLARK and BEGUN 1998). Male accessory gland proteins (Acp's) of the Drosophila melanogaster subgroup have received most of the attention as potential molecular agents of male–male and male–female postcopulatory interactions in Drosophila. There are an estimated 70–106 Acp's in D. melanogaster (MUELLER et al. 2005) that are transferred to females during mating as secreted seminal fluid peptides. Acp's have been shown to stimulate ovulation and increase egg-laying rates (KALB et al. 1993; HERNDON and WOLFNER 1995; HEIFETZ et al. 2000), bind sperm and affect sperm storage (NEUBAUM and WOLFNER 1999; TRAM and WOLFNER 1999), affect the outcome of sperm competition (HARSHMAN and PROUT 1994; CHAPMAN et al. 2000), decrease female receptivity (CHEN et al. 1988; AIGAKI et al. 1991; CHAPMAN et al. 2003; LIU and KUBLI 2003), and decrease female life span (CHAPMAN et al. 1993, 1995; LUNG et al. 2002). Furthermore, Acp's evolve rapidly in the D. melanogaster subgroup (BEGUN et al. 2000; SWANSON et al. 2001; KERN et al. 2004), in at least some cases as a result of directional selection (TSAUR and WU 1997; AGUADÉ 1998, 1999; TSAUR et al. 1998; BEGUN et al. 2000; KERN et al. 2004).
Previous work has demonstrated that Acp's evolve more rapidly than most Drosophila genes (BEGUN et al. 2000; SWANSON et al. 2001; WAGSTAFF and BEGUN 2005a) and that they evolve especially rapidly in desert Drosophila of the repleta group (WAGSTAFF and BEGUN 2005b). Elevated rates of Acp evolution in desert Drosophila may be due to differences between their mating system and that of flies from the D. melanogaster subgroup (MARKOW 1996, 2002). For example, desert Drosophila males take at least twice as long as D. melanogaster males to reach reproductive maturity (PITNICK et al. 1995). Male age at reproductive maturity is positively correlated with sperm size and the size of the female sperm-storage organ in Drosophila species (PITNICK et al. 1995, 1999). Moreover, sperm size and sperm-storage organ size are coevolving rapidly in D. mojavensis, with geographically distinct populations expressing different phenotypes for these correlated traits (PITNICK et al. 2003). Another difference relative to the D. melanogaster subgroup mating system is female remating, which occurs much more rapidly and often in desert Drosophila (MARKOW 2002). Higher remating rates in desert Drosophila could potentially increase selection on phenotypes related to postcopulatory male–male or male–female interactions (MARKOW 2002; SINGH et al. 2002).
Additional differences between repleta group and D. melanogaster subgroup flies are evident in the short-term physiological response of females following copulation. Transfer of seminal fluid triggers an insemination reaction within the female reproductive tract of desert Drosophila (PATTERSON and STONE 1952) but is diminutive in D. melanogaster (WHEELER 1947; MARKOW and ANKNEY 1988). This insemination reaction, which is superficially similar to inflammation, results in a mass in the female reproductive tract. Remating does not occur during the several hours that it persists (PATTERSON 1947; KNOWLES and MARKOW 2001). The intensity of the insemination reaction is highly variable, with interspecific matings (e.g., D. arizonae and D. mojavensis) triggering an exaggerated and harder mass, which persists significantly longer than within-species insemination reactions (PATTERSON 1947). Interestingly, exaggerated insemination reactions are observed in some crosses between geographically distinct populations of D. mojavensis, suggesting that interpopulation postcopulatory incompatibilities may evolve quickly (KNOWLES and MARKOW 2001). Finally, ejaculate components of many repleta group species, including D. mojavensis, are incorporated into female somatic tissues, a phenomenon not known to occur in the D. melanogaster subgroup (MARKOW and ANKNEY 1984; PITNICK et al. 1997).
Our earlier results suggested that, although general patterns of protein variation in Acp's from desert Drosophila and D. melanogaster subgroup flies are similar, there are important quantitative differences between the groups. For example, we found faster rates of protein evolution and stronger evidence for directional selection in repleta group Acp's relative to D. melanogaster subgroup Acp's (WAGSTAFF and BEGUN 2005b). Analyses of annotated D. melanogaster Acp's show that, although several Acp duplicates exist, they tend to be relatively highly diverged at the nucleotide level (HOLLOWAY and BEGUN 2004; MUELLER et al. 2005). Here we report the discovery of several recent Acp duplications in D. arizonae/D. mojavensis. Our analyses suggest that several of these recent duplications have diverged under directional selection, a phenomenon not observed in D. melanogaster (HOLLOWAY and BEGUN 2004). These data provide additional support for different evolutionary processes acting on Acp's in these lineages, perhaps as a result of mating system divergence.
| MATERIALS AND METHODS |
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Most duplicate Acp's described here were accidentally amplified during our earlier survey (WAGSTAFF and BEGUN 2005b) as secondary PCR products from primers designed from D. mojavensis accessory gland ESTs. Sequence data from each putative duplicate Acp were used to design duplicate-specific PCR primers for amplifying additional copies. However, the very short length of some Acp's under investigation made it difficult to isolate duplicates from all of the fly lines in this survey. Expand high-fidelity polymerase (Roche Molecular Biochemicals) was used for PCR amplification. Single alleles for sequencing were isolated by TOPO vector (Invitrogen, San Diego) cloning of PCR products. PCR-amplified colony-PCR products and their associated sequences were obtained using M13 reverse and T7 vector primers. All sequencing was done on an Applied Biosystems 377 automated sequencer (ABI).
Organization of duplicated Acp's:
Patterns of sequence divergence (see below) in most cases provided unambiguous evidence that the Acp's in question are duplications rather than highly diverged alleles. However, we used molecular and further computational analysis to investigate the genomic organization of putative duplicate Acp's. Under the premise that recent duplications are often tandemly arranged, we designed PCR primers to amplify genomic DNA across the putative duplicates. We used LA-Taq long PCR polymerase (TaKaRa, Shiga, Japan) with an extension time of 10 min and cycling parameters according to the manufacturer's instructions. Successfully amplified fragments were end sequenced to confirm that the amplified product corresponded to the expected genomic sequence under the tandem duplication hypothesis. When the draft version of the whole-genome shotgun (WGS) D. mojavensis genome became available, we used BLAT (BLAST-like alignment tool, UCSC Genome Browser) analysis (KENT 2002) to confirm our observations and localize additional duplicate Acp's.
Molecular population genetic statistics and hypothesis tests of adaptive protein evolution:
Alleles and duplicate gene sequences were aligned and edited using the DNASTAR software package (Lasergene, Madison, WI). The DnaSP program of ROZAS and ROZAS (1999) was used to measure levels of polymorphism and divergence for duplicate genes represented by multiple alleles. Group averages (i.e., duplicates vs. other Acp's) were calculated by taking averages weighted according to sequence length.
Nucleotide distances were used to infer the topologies of duplicate family genealogies. Maximum-likelihood estimation of branch-specific dN and dS values used the free-ratio model (model 1) of the PAML computer program (YANG 1997). Outgroups were determined by pairwise distance estimates and corroborated by PAML branch length output. For genes sampled for multiple alleles, one random allele was chosen for PAML analyses. Alignments were generated using the DNASTAR software package (Lasergene) and manually adjusted where appropriate. Indel variation for codon positions that were gapped in >50% of the aligned sequences were omitted from the analyses. PAML tests for branch heterogeneity compared likelihood estimates from the free-ratio model to estimates from the one-ratio model (model 0). We then tested entire gene trees for significant evidence of dN/dS > 1 by comparing the one-ratio model to a one-ratio model with dN/dS = 1 (fix_ omega = 1; omega = 1). To test whether the dN value of a given branch significantly exceeds the dS value (Acp27 only), we used the two-ratio model (model 2) and set all background branches to have the same dN/dS value. The branch of interest either was allowed to be free or was fixed at dN/dS = 1. For likelihood-ratio tests, twice the log-likelihood difference was compared to a
2 distribution with 1 d.f. [or (number of branches – 1) for the branch heterogeneity tests] to determine significance levels.
| RESULTS |
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| DISCUSSION |
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The four D. arizonae/D. mojavensis Acp gene families investigated here evolve more rapidly than putative single-copy Acp's, with evidence of adaptive evolution in all four families. These results are consistent with observations suggesting that gene duplication can facilitate adaptive protein evolution (OHNO 1970; OHTA 1994; LI 1995). Interspecific dN/dS ratios for all duplicate Acp's varied from 0.808 to 4.121, significantly exceeding the distribution of dN/dS ratios for putative single-copy Acp's. Moreover, paralogous dN/dS ratios were even higher, demonstrating a broad time frame for adaptive evolution since most duplication events clearly predate D. arizonae/D. mojavensis speciation. Our maximum-likelihood analyses show that 16 of 20 duplicate gene tree branches have dN/dS ratios >1. The complete gene tree for each duplicate gene family significantly exceeds dN/dS = 1.
Duplicated Acp's also show higher levels of nonsynonymous polymorphism compared to single-copy Acp's. The high rate of adaptive protein evolution at these loci and the evidence for significant geographical variation in postcopulatory D. mojavensis phenotypes (KNOWLES and MARKOW 2001; PITNICK et al. 2003; REED and MARKOW 2004) suggest that some nonsynonymous polymorphism in Acp gene families might be due to divergent selection between geographically isolated populations. Alternatively, the high level of nonsynonymous polymorphism could be due to selected amino acid polymorphisms during their sojourn through the population. The lower synonymous heterozyogsity in duplicated vs. single-copy Acp's is consistent with this scenario. Additional population genetics and functional data comparing intra- and interpopulation dynamics between conspecific desert Drosophila populations are needed to resolve this question.
| ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS |
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| FOOTNOTES |
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