Year: 2022

EUKARYOTES WITHOUT SEXUAL CYCLE. “Inspired by recent reports we argue that such organisms can be as persistent as organisms with conventional sexual cycles through the use of other mechanisms, such as genomic rearrangements, to foster adaptation.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

DYNAMIC GENOMES. “Genomes are highly dynamic and vary considerably between, and often even within, species with respect to structure and content. This dynamics is caused by mutations that are either neutral, and may thus be transient, or mediate increased fitness and became fixed in the population by natural (Darwinian) selection.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

GENOMIC VARIATION. “Variations are caused by a multitude of mechanisms and range from single nucleotide polymorphisms to large-scale genomic rearrangements. The latter may result in translocation, duplication, and deletion of genetic material, thereby affecting chromosomal size and gene content.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

HEART OF EVOLUTION. “Even though chromosomal rearrangements have been associated with diseases and reduced fitness, they are also major drivers of evolution. They contribute to adaptation to novel or changing environments and even to speciation by reproductive isolation.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

A SOURCE OF GENETIC VARIATION. “Sexual reproduction has been observed in nearly all branches of the eukaryotic tree of life. It provides an important mechanism to establish genetic variation by combining genetic information of two parental lineages.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

SEXUAL DRIVERS OF VARIATION. “Before genetic information is transferred to the progeny, meiotic recombination generates novel combinations of existing alleles. It is therefore not surprising that meiotic recombination is considered an important driver for rapid adaptation of pathogens to their hosts.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

ASEXUAL LINEAGES. “Nevertheless, in a considerable proportion of eukaryotic lineages, no sexual cycle has ever been observed, e.g. in around 20% of all fungi, a kingdom that contains pathogens of animals and plants. Such lineages that lack a sexual cycle have been considered evolutionary dead-ends.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

ASEXUALITY IS NOT A HANDICAP. “However, several recent observations challenge this view, since some organisms appear to be successful in the absence of sexual reproduction.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

PERSISTENT ASEXUAL ROTIFERS. “Bdelloid rotifers are microscopic animals that have persisted for millions of years with an asexual lifestyle, and recent insight in the genome of a bdelloid rotifer confirmed that its genome structure is incompatible with conventional meiosis due to frequent genomic rearrangements.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn

PERSISTENT ASEXUAL FUNGUS. “Comparative genomics on Verticillium dahliae, a fungal plant pathogen for which a sexual cycle has never been observed, revealed extensive chromosomal rearrangements that establish lineage-specific genomic regions that are responsible for adaptation to plant hosts and evolution of fungal aggressiveness.” https://lnkd.in/eC8eb-V View in LinkedIn