| 1. |
- Guschanski, Katerina, Dr. 1978-, et al.
(författare)
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Next-Generation Museomics Disentangles One of the Largest Primate Radiations
- 2013
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Ingår i: Systematic Biology. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 1063-5157 .- 1076-836X. ; 62:4, s. 539-554
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Guenons (tribe Cercopithecini) are one of the most diverse groups of primates. They occupy all of sub-Saharan Africa and show great variation in ecology, behavior, and morphology. This variation led to the description of over 60 species and subspecies. Here, using next-generation DNA sequencing (NGS) in combination with targeted DNA capture, we sequenced 92 mitochondrial genomes from museum-preserved specimens as old as 117 years. We infer evolutionary relationships and estimate divergence times of almost all guenon taxa based on mitochondrial genome sequences. Using this phylogenetic framework, we infer divergence dates and reconstruct ancestral geographic ranges. We conclude that the extraordinary radiation of guenons has been a complex process driven by, among other factors, localized fluctuations of African forest cover. We find incongruences between phylogenetic trees reconstructed from mitochondrial and nuclear DNA sequences, which can be explained by either incomplete lineage sorting or hybridization. Furthermore, having produced the largest mitochondrial DNA data set from museum specimens, we document how NGS technologies can “unlock” museum collections, thereby helping to unravel the tree-of-life. [Museum collection; next-generation DNA sequencing; primate radiation; speciation; target capture.]
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| 2. |
- Meunier, Julien, et al.
(författare)
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Birth and expression evolution of mammalian microRNA genes
- 2013
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Ingår i: Genome Research. - : Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. - 1088-9051 .- 1549-5469. ; 23:1, s. 34-45
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are major post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression, yet their origins and functional evolution in mammals remain little understood due to the lack of appropriate comparative data. Using RNA sequencing, we have generated extensive and comparable miRNA data for five organs in six species that represent all main mammalian lineages and birds (the evolutionary outgroup) with the aim to unravel the evolution of mammalian miRNAs. Our analyses reveal an overall expansion of miRNA repertoires in mammals, with threefold accelerated birth rates of miRNA families in placentals and marsupials, facilitated by the de novo emergence of miRNAs in host gene introns. Generally, our analyses suggest a high rate of miRNA family turnover in mammals with many newly emerged miRNA families being lost soon after their formation. Selectively preserved mammalian miRNA families gradually evolved higher expression levels, as well as altered mature sequences and target gene repertoires, and were apparently mainly recruited to exert regulatory functions in nervous tissues. However, miRNAs that originated on the X chromosome evolved high expression levels and potentially diverse functions during spermatogenesis, including meiosis, through selectively driven duplication-divergence processes. Overall, our study thus provides detailed insights into the birth and evolution of mammalian miRNA genes and the associated selective forces.
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| 3. |
- Roy, Justin, et al.
(författare)
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Recent divergences and size decreases of eastern gorilla populations
- 2014
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Ingår i: Biology Letters. - : The Royal Society. - 1744-9561 .- 1744-957X. ; 10:11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Compared with other African apes, eastern gorillas (Gorilla beringei) have been little studied genetically. We used analysis of autosomal DNA genotypes obtained from non-invasively collected faecal samples to estimate the evolutionary histories of the two extant mountain gorilla populations and the closely related eastern lowland gorillas. Our results suggest that eastern lowland gorillas and mountain gorillas split beginning some 10 000 years ago, followed 5000 years ago by the split of the two mountain gorilla populations of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and the Virungas Massif. All three populations have decreased in effective population size, with particularly substantial 10- fold decreases for the mountain gorillas. These dynamics probably reflect responses to habitat changes resulting from climate fluctuations over the past 20 000 years as well as increasing human influence in this densely populated region in the last several thousand years.
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| 4. |
- Sawyer, Susanna, et al.
(författare)
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Temporal Patterns of Nucleotide Misincorporations and DNA Fragmentation in Ancient DNA
- 2012
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Ingår i: PLOS ONE. - : Public Library of Science (PLoS). - 1932-6203. ; 7:3
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- DNA that survives in museum specimens, bones and other tissues recovered by archaeologists is invariably fragmented and chemically modified. The extent to which such modifications accumulate over time is largely unknown but could potentially be used to differentiate between endogenous old DNA and present-day DNA contaminating specimens and experiments. Here we examine mitochondrial DNA sequences from tissue remains that vary in age between 18 and 60,000 years with respect to three molecular features: fragment length, base composition at strand breaks, and apparent C to T substitutions. We find that fragment length does not decrease consistently over time and that strand breaks occur preferentially before purine residues by what may be at least two different molecular mechanisms that are not yet understood. In contrast, the frequency of apparent C to T substitutions towards the 5'-ends of molecules tends to increase over time. These nucleotide misincorporations are thus a useful tool to distinguish recent from ancient DNA sources in specimens that have not been subjected to unusual or harsh treatments.
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| 5. |
- Thalmann, Olaf, et al.
(författare)
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Historical sampling reveals dramatic demographic changes in western gorilla populations
- 2011
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Ingår i: BMC Evolutionary Biology. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1471-2148. ; 11
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Today many large mammals live in small, fragmented populations, but it is often unclear whether this subdivision is the result of long-term or recent events. Demographic modeling using genetic data can estimate changes in long-term population sizes while temporal sampling provides a way to compare genetic variation present today with that sampled in the past. In order to better understand the dynamics associated with the divergences of great ape populations, these analytical approaches were applied to western gorillas (Gorilla gorilla) and in particular to the isolated and Critically Endangered Cross River gorilla subspecies (G. g. diehli). Results: We used microsatellite genotypes from museum specimens and contemporary samples of Cross River gorillas to infer both the long-term and recent population history. We find that Cross River gorillas diverged from the ancestral western gorilla population similar to 17,800 years ago (95% HDI: 760, 63,245 years). However, gene flow ceased only similar to 420 years ago (95% HDI: 200, 16,256 years), followed by a bottleneck beginning similar to 320 years ago (95% HDI: 200, 2,825 years) that caused a 60 fold decrease in the effective population size of Cross River gorillas. Direct comparison of heterozygosity estimates from museum and contemporary samples suggests a loss of genetic variation over the last 100 years. Conclusions: The composite history of western gorillas could plausibly be explained by climatic oscillations inducing environmental changes in western equatorial Africa that would have allowed gorilla populations to expand over time but ultimately isolate the Cross River gorillas, which thereafter exhibited a dramatic population size reduction. The recent decrease in the Cross River population is accordingly most likely attributable to increasing anthropogenic pressure over the last several hundred years. Isolation of diverging populations with prolonged concomitant gene flow, but not secondary admixture, appears to be a typical characteristic of the population histories of African great apes, including gorillas, chimpanzees and bonobos.
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