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Neural crest cell genes and the domestication syndrome: A comparative analysis of selection

Neural crest cell genes control the migration of neural crest cells to multiple parts of developing vertebrate embryos. A recent hypothesis posits that the “domestication syndrome” characteristic of domesticated animals is driven by selection for tameness acting on neural crest cell genes, particula...

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Autores principales: Rubio, Andrew O., Summers, Kyle
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8836321/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35148331
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263830
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author Rubio, Andrew O.
Summers, Kyle
author_facet Rubio, Andrew O.
Summers, Kyle
author_sort Rubio, Andrew O.
collection PubMed
description Neural crest cell genes control the migration of neural crest cells to multiple parts of developing vertebrate embryos. A recent hypothesis posits that the “domestication syndrome” characteristic of domesticated animals is driven by selection for tameness acting on neural crest cell genes, particularly those affecting cell migration. This is posited to explain why this syndrome involves many disparate phenotypic effects. These effects can be connected to deficits in neural crest cell migration. This hypothesis predicts that patterns of selection on these neural crest cell genes will differ between domesticated species and related wild species. Specifically, it predicts higher levels of positive selection on these genes in domesticated species, relative to closely related wild species. Here we test this prediction in a comparative framework. We obtained DNA sequences from a public database (NCBI) for eleven key neural crest cell genes from a set of thirty domesticated vertebrates and matched close relatives that remain wild. We used the program Contrast-FEL in the software suite HyPhy to compare the number of sites under positive selection (as measured by non-synonymous to synonymous nucleotide substitution rates across codons) between these two types of taxa in a phylogenetic framework. We found that domesticated lineages showed a consistently higher level of positive selection on these key genes, relative to their closely related wild counterparts. In addition, we found support for relaxation of selection and purifying selection. We argue that this result is consistent with an important role for these genes in the domestication syndrome.
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spelling pubmed-88363212022-02-12 Neural crest cell genes and the domestication syndrome: A comparative analysis of selection Rubio, Andrew O. Summers, Kyle PLoS One Research Article Neural crest cell genes control the migration of neural crest cells to multiple parts of developing vertebrate embryos. A recent hypothesis posits that the “domestication syndrome” characteristic of domesticated animals is driven by selection for tameness acting on neural crest cell genes, particularly those affecting cell migration. This is posited to explain why this syndrome involves many disparate phenotypic effects. These effects can be connected to deficits in neural crest cell migration. This hypothesis predicts that patterns of selection on these neural crest cell genes will differ between domesticated species and related wild species. Specifically, it predicts higher levels of positive selection on these genes in domesticated species, relative to closely related wild species. Here we test this prediction in a comparative framework. We obtained DNA sequences from a public database (NCBI) for eleven key neural crest cell genes from a set of thirty domesticated vertebrates and matched close relatives that remain wild. We used the program Contrast-FEL in the software suite HyPhy to compare the number of sites under positive selection (as measured by non-synonymous to synonymous nucleotide substitution rates across codons) between these two types of taxa in a phylogenetic framework. We found that domesticated lineages showed a consistently higher level of positive selection on these key genes, relative to their closely related wild counterparts. In addition, we found support for relaxation of selection and purifying selection. We argue that this result is consistent with an important role for these genes in the domestication syndrome. Public Library of Science 2022-02-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8836321/ /pubmed/35148331 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263830 Text en © 2022 Rubio, Summers https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Rubio, Andrew O.
Summers, Kyle
Neural crest cell genes and the domestication syndrome: A comparative analysis of selection
title Neural crest cell genes and the domestication syndrome: A comparative analysis of selection
title_full Neural crest cell genes and the domestication syndrome: A comparative analysis of selection
title_fullStr Neural crest cell genes and the domestication syndrome: A comparative analysis of selection
title_full_unstemmed Neural crest cell genes and the domestication syndrome: A comparative analysis of selection
title_short Neural crest cell genes and the domestication syndrome: A comparative analysis of selection
title_sort neural crest cell genes and the domestication syndrome: a comparative analysis of selection
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8836321/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35148331
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263830
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