Significance of differential allelic expression (DAE) in phenotypic plasticity and evolutionary potential of microbial eukaryotes

Tatman, Ben, Mock, Thomas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9604-0362, Wu, Taoyang ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2663-2001 and van Oosterhout, Cock ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5653-738X (2021) Significance of differential allelic expression (DAE) in phenotypic plasticity and evolutionary potential of microbial eukaryotes. Quantitative Biology, 9 (4). pp. 400-410. ISSN 2095-4689

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Abstract

Background: Differential allelic expression (DAE) plays a key role in the regulation of many biological processes, and it may also play a role in adaptive evolution. Recently, environment-dependent DAE has been observed in species of marine phytoplankton, and most remarkably, alleles that showed the highest level of DAE also showed the fastest rate of evolution. Methods: To better understand the role of DAE in adaptive evolution and phenotypic plasticity, we developed a 2-D cellular automata model “DAEsy-World” that builds on the classical Daisyworld model. Results: Simulations show that DAE delineates the evolution of alternative alleles of a gene, enabling the two alleles to adapt to different environmental conditions and sub-functionalize. With DAE, the build-up of genetic polymorphisms within genes is driven by positive selection rather than strict neutral evolution, and this can enhance phenotypic plasticity. Moreover, in sexually reproducing organisms, DAE also increased the standing genetic variation, augmenting a species' adaptive evolutionary potential and ability to respond to fluctuating and/or changing conditions (cf. genetic assimilation). We furthermore show that DAE is likely to evolve in fluctuating environmental conditions. Conclusions: DAE increases the adaptive evolutionary potential of both sexual and asexually reproducing organisms, and it may affect the pattern of nucleotide substitutions of genes.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Acknowledgements: The authors would like to thank the NERC for the Research Experience Placement (REP) scheme awarded to the EnvEast doctoral training programme (EnvEast DTP) of the University of East Anglia (UEA). Funding was provided by the NERC for the Research Experience Placement (REP) scheme awarded to the EnvEast doctoral training programme (EnvEast DTP) of the University of East Anglia (UEA). CvO was sponsored by the Earth & Life Systems Alliance (ELSA).
Uncontrolled Keywords: adaptive evolution,daisyworld model,differential allelic expression,phenotypic plasticity,applied mathematics,biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology (miscellaneous),computer science applications,modelling and simulation,sdg 14 - life below water ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2600/2604
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Science > School of Computing Sciences
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Environmental Biology
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Centre for Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Computational Biology
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Data Science and AI
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Depositing User: LivePure Connector
Date Deposited: 10 Dec 2020 00:46
Last Modified: 10 Dec 2024 01:36
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/77941
DOI: 10.15302/J-QB-021-0258

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