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The adaptive evolution of meiosis in response to challenges from genome duplication and climate change

Reference	BBS/E/J/000C0679
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Dr Kirsten Bomblies
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors
Institution	John Innes Centre
Department	John Innes Centre Department
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	217,247
Status	Completed
Type	Institute Project
Start date	01/09/2015
End date	31/03/2017
Duration	18 months

Abstract

Meiosis is essential for fertility in sexual eukaryotes and its core structures and progression are conserved across kingdoms. Meiosis is a largely structural process that requires coordinated interaction of successive multiprotein complexes. The reliability of meiosis can be challenged, however, e.g. by genome duplication or environmental stress, particularly temperature. These perturbations threaten chromosome segregation and fertility, which in turn has important implications for evolution and agricultural improvement. Though we know next to nothing about how meiotic systems can be altered to overcome challenges, nature has solved these problems repeatedly. Thus we capitalize on naturally evolved systems to better understand how meiotic systems can be manipulated to improve resilience to challenges. In a genome scan for adaptation to whole genome duplication in Arabidopsis arenosa, we previously found eight interacting meiotic proteins critical for core meiotic processes show strong evidence of having been under selection. One of the lab’s current goals is to understand how these proteins and the complex structures they build functionally evolved during polyploid evolution. Our current hypothesis is that polyploid evolution necessitates alteration of genome-wide crossover rates and placement, perhaps by altering crossover interference and that shifts in core structural proteins were essential for this. We also found that two of the same genes show strong evidence of having independently been under selection in a diploid lineage that colonized a warmer lowland habitat. This lineage is more tolerant of high temperature for meiotic integrity than a neighboring mountain type. This hints that modifications of core axis components may be critical in different evolutionary scenarios. Our findings are broadly relevant to understanding the evolutionary dynamics of proteins that participate in large constrained complexes and directly affect the fertility of their carriers.

Summary

unavailable

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Plant Science
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	X - not in an Initiative
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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