The natural 13 C abundance (δ 13 C) in plant leaves has been used for decades with great success in agronomy to monitor water-use efficiency and select modern cultivars adapted to dry conditions. However, in wheat, it is also important to find genotypes with high carbon allocation to spikes and grains, and thus with a high harvest index (HI) and/or low carbon losses via respiration. Finding isotope-based markers of carbon partitioning to grains would be extremely useful since isotope analyses are inexpensive and can be performed routinely at high throughput. Here, we took the advantage of a set of field trials made of more than 600 plots with several wheat cultivars and measured agronomic parameters as well as δ 13 C values in leaves and grains. We find a linear relationship between the apparent isotope discrimination between leaves and grain (denoted as Δδ corr ), and the respiration use efficiency-to-HI ratio. It means that overall, efficient carbon allocation to grains is
Critical mitochondrial functions, including cellular respiration, rely on frequently interacting components expressed from both the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes. The fitness of eukaryotic organisms depends on a tight collaboration between both genomes. In the face of an elevated rate of evolution in the mitochondrial genome, current models predict that maintenance of mitonuclear compatibility relies on compensatory evolution of the nuclear genome. Mitonuclear interactions would therefore exert a strong influence on evolutionary trajectories. One prediction from this model is that the same nuclear genomes but evolving with different mitochondrial haplotypes would follow distinct molecular paths towards higher fitness peaks. To test this prediction, we submitted 1344 populations derived from seven mitonuclear genotypes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to more than 300 generations of experimental evolution in conditions that either select for a mitochondrial function, or that do not strictly require this organelle for survival. Performing high-throughput phenotyping and whole-genome sequencing on independently evolved individuals isolated from endpoint populations, we identified numerous examples of gene-level evolutionary convergence among populations with the same mitonuclear background. We recapitulated a subset of prominent loss-of-function alleles in the ancestral backgrounds. This confirmed a generalized pattern of mitonuclear-specific and highly epistatic fitness effects. Together, these results demonstrate how mitonuclear interactions can dictate evolutionary divergence of populations with identical starting nuclear genotypes.
Critical mitochondrial functions, including cellular respiration, rely on frequently interacting components expressed from both the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes. The fitness of eukaryotic organisms depends on a tight collaboration between both genomes. In the face of an elevated rate of evolution in mtDNA, current models predict that maintenance of mitonuclear compatibility relies on compensatory evolution of the nuclear genome. Mitonuclear interactions would therefore exert an influence on evolutionary trajectories. One prediction from this model is that the same nuclear genome evolving with different mitochondrial haplotypes would follow distinct molecular paths towards higher fitness. To test this prediction, we submitted 1344 populations derived from seven mitonuclear genotypes of Saccharomyces cerevisiae to more than 300 generations of experimental evolution in conditions that either select for a mitochondrial function, or that do not strictly require respiration for survival. Performing high-throughput phenotyping and whole-genome sequencing on independently evolved individuals, we identified numerous examples of gene-level evolutionary convergence among populations with the same mitonuclear background. Phenotypic and genotypic data on strains derived from this evolution experiment identify the nuclear genome and the environment as the main determinants of evolutionary divergence, but also show a modulating role for the mitochondrial genome exerted both directly and via interactions with the two other components. We finally recapitulated a subset of prominent loss-of-function alleles in the ancestral backgrounds and confirmed a generalized pattern of mitonuclear-specific and highly epistatic fitness effects. Together, these results demonstrate how mitonuclear interactions can dictate evolutionary divergence of populations with identical starting nuclear genotypes.
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