Study
Marie Leys selected:
Consequences of asexuality in natural populations: insights from stick insects
Molecular Biology and Evolution (2018) 35: 1668 –1677
Abstract
- Recombination is a fundamental process with significant impacts on genome evolution. Predicted consequences of the loss of recombination include a reduced effectiveness of selection, changes in the amount of neutral polymorphisms segregating in populations, and an arrest of GC-biased gene conversion. Although these consequences are empirically well documented for nonrecombining genome portions, it remains largely unknown if they extend to the whole genome scale in asexual organisms.
- We identify the consequences of asexuality using de novo transcriptomes of five independently derived, obligately asexual lineages of stick insects, and their sexual sister-species.
- We find strong evidence for higher rates of deleterious mutation accumulation, lower levels of segregating polymorphisms and arrested GC-biased gene conversion in asexuals as compared with sexuals.
- Taken together, our study conclusively shows that predicted consequences of genome evolution under asexuality can indeed be found in natural populations.