When rapid environmental change creates fitness valleys, recombination plays an ambiguous role. Wirtz et al. investigate how swift population recovery is possible, and interpret chromosomal fusions in this context.

Read now ahead of print!
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/738517

#FitnessValleys #Recombination #ChromosomalFusions #EEB

Came across this gem in my bookmarks...

No Sex Needed: All-Female #Lizard Species Cross Their Chromosomes to Make Babies

These southwestern lizards' asexual reproduction is no longer a secret

By Katherine Harmon
February 21, 2010

"Since the 1960s scientists have known that some species of #WhiptailLizards need a male even less than a fish needs a bicycle. These all-lady lizard species (of the Aspidoscelis genus) from Mexico and the U.S. Southwest manage to produce well-bred offspring without the aid of male fertilization.

"But how do they—and the other 70 species of vertebrates that propagate this way—do it without the genetic monotony and disease vulnerability that often results from asexual reproduction? 'It has remained unclear' and 'has been the topic of much speculation,' report a team of researchers who aimed to answer just that question. Their results were published online February 21 in the journal Nature. (Scientific American is part of Nature Publishing Group.)

"These lizards and other '#parthenogenetic species are genetically isolated,' explains Peter Baumann, an associate investigator at the Stowers Institute for Medical Research in Kansas City, Mo., and co-author of the study. Species as diverse as #KomodoDragons and #HammerheadSharks do it asexually if necessary, but some species, like these little lizards, don't have a choice. 'They can't exchange genetic material, and this loss of genetic exchange is a major disadvantage to them in a changing environment,' he says. Unless an animal can recombine the DNA they already have, they will produce an offspring with an identical set of chromosomes, in which any genetic weakness, such as disease susceptibility or physical mutation, would have no chance to be overridden by outside genetic material from a mate.

"The new research by Baumann and his team reveal that these lizards maintain genetic richness by starting the reproductive process with twice the number of chromosomes as their sexually reproducing cousins. These celibate species resulted from the hybridization of different sexual species, a process that instills the parthenogenetic lizards with a great amount of #GeneticDiversity at the outset. And the researchers found that these species could maintain the diversity by never pairing their homologous chromosomes (as sexual species do by taking one set of chromosomes from each parent) but rather by combining their sister chromosomes instead. '#Recombination between pairs of sister chromosomes maintains heterozygosity' throughout the chromosome, noted the authors of the study, which was led by Aracely Lutes, a postdoctoral researcher in Baumann's lab.

"This discovery, which had until now been unconfirmed in the reptile world, means that 'these lizards have a way of distinguishing sister from homologous chromosomes,' Baumann says. How do they do it? That's something the group is now investigating.

"Another big unknown is precisely how the lizards end up with double the amount of chromosomes in the first place. Baumann suspects that it could happen over two rounds of replication or if two sex cells combine forces before the division process starts."

Read more:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/asexual-lizards/

#AsexualReproduction #NatureIsQueer #NatureIsGay #NatureIsCool! #Lizards

Versoza et al. use WGS of pedigrees of aye-ayes to map crossover and noncrossover recombination events.

🔗 doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evaf072

#genome #primate #recombination #evolution

If you're interested in population genetics and cooperation, you might be interested in our latest theory paper on the topic! Check it out!

⬇️ ⬇️
https://academic.oup.com/evolut/advance-article/doi/10.1093/evolut/qpae147/7821382
⬆️ ⬆️

#evolution #popgen #cooperation #altruism #recombination

#Recombination across distant #coronavirid #species and #genera is a rare #event with distinct #genomic features

Source: Journal of Virology, ABSTRACTSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; family Coronaviridae, genus Betacoronavirus, subgenus Sarbecovirus) has caused millions of deaths, prompting a need for better understanding of coronavirid emergence and spillover to humans. As an evaluation of how some features of SARS-CoV-2, unique among…

https://etidioh.wordpress.com/2024/11/19/recombination-across-distant-coronavirid-species-and-genera-is-a-rare-event-with-distinct-genomic-features/

#VideoTitle "Top Four Recent Human Evolution Discoveries", by https://youtube.com/@gutsickgibbon at https://youtu.be/ZJLm5ag7bRw

#VideoDescription
"""[…]

[1] Vocal labeling of others by nonhuman primates
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp3757

[2] Early evolution of small body size in Homo floresiensis
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-50649-7

[3] A 4.3-million-year-old Australopithecus anamensis mandible from Ileret, East Turkana, Kenya, and its paleoenvironmental context
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047248424000873

[4] Long genetic and social isolation in Neanderthals before their extinction
https://www.cell.com/cell-genomics/fulltext/S2666-979X(24)00177-0?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS2666979X24001770%3Fshowall%3Dtrue

[5] Spatial sampling bias influences our understanding of early hominin evolution in eastern Africa
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-024-02522-5

[6] Darwin's fear was unjustified: Study suggests fossil record gaps not a major issue
https://phys.org/news/2024-08-darwin-unjustified-fossil-gaps-major.html

[7] Annelid Comparative Genomics and the Evolution of Massive Lineage-Specific Genome Rearrangement in Bilaterians
https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/41/9/msae172/7733614?login=false
"""

TAGS:
[1] #Cognition #cognitiveFunction #Vocalization #vocalCall #Marmoset #Language #Communication #socialCommunication

[2] #HomoGenus #H_floresiensis #H_luzonensis #MataMenge #FloresIsland #Indonesia #middlePleistocene #Pleistocene #homininFossil #Java #H_erectus #60ka #700ka

[3] #homininMandible #EastTurkana #Kenya #4_3Ma #Australopithecus #Au_anamensis #Au_afarensis #Ardipithecus #Ar_ramidus #Anagenesis #Cladogenesis

[4] #Neanderthal #Thorin #Eurasia #Gibraltar #GrotteMandrin #France #50ka #42ka #105ka

[5] #EasternAfricanRiftSystem #EARS #cercopithecinePrimate

[6] #FossilRecord #Simulation #Projection #Resolution

[7] #Genome #Genomics #Recombination #geneticRecombination #Adaptation #Speciation #bilateralSymmetry #Annelida #Clitellata #Leech #Earthworm

[Correspondence] #Recombination as an evolutionary #driver of #MERS-related #coronavirus emergence https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(24)00461-4/fulltext?rss=yes

The emergence of MERS-CoV in #camels and humans was preceded by an important recombination event, in which the ancestral #receptor binding domain was replaced with that of a different merbecovirus lineage, thereby altering receptor usage.

🧬 New recombination review 🧬
Genetic variation is essential for evolution. So what do we know about genetic variation underlying recombination rates & distribution? I've written a perspective for MBE on why its important, what we have learned, & open questions for the future.

https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/41/7/msae112/7705493?login=false

#recombination #meiosis #meiosis4eva