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Enhanced plasticity of programmed DNA elimination boosts adaptive potential in suboptimal environments

Valerio Vitali, Rebecca Hagen, Francesco Catania
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/448316
Valerio Vitali
Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Münster, Hüfferstrasse 1, 48149 Münster, Germany
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Rebecca Hagen
Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Münster, Hüfferstrasse 1, 48149 Münster, Germany
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Francesco Catania
Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity, University of Münster, Hüfferstrasse 1, 48149 Münster, Germany
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  • For correspondence: francesco.catania@uni-muenster.de
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Abstract

The impact of ecological changes on the development of new somatic genomes has thus far been neglected. This oversight yields an incomplete understanding of the mechanisms that underlie environmental adaptation and can be tackled leveraging the biological properties of ciliates. When Paramecium reproduces sexually, its polyploid somatic genome regenerates from the germline genome via a developmental process, Programmed DNA elimination (PDE), that involves the removal of thousands of ORF-interrupting germline sequences. Here, we demonstrate that exposure to sub-optimal temperatures impacts PDE efficiency, prompting the emergence of hundreds of alternative DNA splicing variants that dually embody cryptic (germline) variation and de novo induced (somatic) mutations. In contrast to trivial biological errors, many of these alternative DNA isoforms display a patterned genomic topography, are epigenetically controlled, inherited trans-somatically, and under purifying selection. Developmental thermoplasticity in Paramecium is a likely source of evolutionary innovation.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted October 20, 2018.
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Enhanced plasticity of programmed DNA elimination boosts adaptive potential in suboptimal environments
Valerio Vitali, Rebecca Hagen, Francesco Catania
bioRxiv 448316; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/448316
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Enhanced plasticity of programmed DNA elimination boosts adaptive potential in suboptimal environments
Valerio Vitali, Rebecca Hagen, Francesco Catania
bioRxiv 448316; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/448316

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