An official website of the United States government
In many animals, the germline differentiates early in embryogenesis, so only mutations that accumulate in germ cells are inherited by offspring. Exceptions to this developmental process may indicate other mechanisms have evolved to limit the effects of deleterious mutation accumulation. Stony corals are animals that can live for hundreds of years and have been thought to produce gametes from somatic tissue. To clarify conflicting evidence about germline-soma distinction in corals, we sequenced high coverage, full genomes with technical replicates for parent coral branches and their sperm pools. We identified post-embryonic single nucleotide variants (SNVs) unique to each parent branch, then checked if each SNV was shared by the respective sperm pool. Twenty-six per cent of post-embryonic SNVs were shared by the sperm and 74% were not. We also identified germline SNVs, those that were present in the sperm but not in the parent. These data suggest that self-renewing stem cells differentiate into germ and soma throughout the adult life of the colony, with SNV rates and patterns differing markedly in stem, soma and germ lineages. In addition to informing the evolution of germlines in metazoans, these insights inform how corals may generate adaptive diversity necessary in the face of global climate change.
more »
« less
Inheritance of somatic mutations by animal offspring
Since 1892, it has been widely assumed that somatic mutations are evolutionarily irrelevant in animals because they cannot be inherited by offspring. However, some nonbilaterians segregate the soma and germline late in development or never, leaving the evolutionary fate of their somatic mutations unknown. By investigating uni- and biparental reproduction in the coralAcropora palmata(Cnidaria, Anthozoa), we found that uniparental, meiotic offspring harbored 50% of the 268 somatic mutations present in their parent. Thus, somatic mutations accumulated in adult coral animals, entered the germline, and were passed on to swimming larvae that grew into healthy juvenile corals. In this way, somatic mutations can increase allelic diversity and facilitate adaptation across habitats and generations in animals.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 1848671
- PAR ID:
- 10480161
- Publisher / Repository:
- AAAS
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Science Advances
- Volume:
- 8
- Issue:
- 35
- ISSN:
- 2375-2548
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
The rate and spectrum of somatic mutations can diverge from that of germline mutations. This is because somatic tissues experience different mutagenic processes than germline tissues. Here, we use nanorate sequencing (NanoSeq) to identify somatic mutations in Arabidopsis shoots with high sensitivity. We report a somatic mutation rate of 3.6x10^-8 mutations/bp, ~4-5x the germline mutation rate. Somatic mutations displayed elevated signatures consistent with oxidative damage, UV damage, and transcription-coupled nucleotide excision repair. Both somatic and germline mutations were enriched in transposable elements and depleted in genes, but this depletion was greater in germline mutations. Somatic mutation rate correlated with proximity to the centromere, DNA methylation, chromatin accessibility, and gene/TE content, properties which were also largely true of germline mutations. We note DNA methylation and chromatin accessibility have different predicted effects on mutation rate for genic and non-genic regions; DNA methylation associates with a greater increase in mutation rate when in non-genic regions, and accessible chromatin associates with a lower mutation rate in non-genic regions but a higher mutation rate in genic regions. Together, these results characterize key differences and similarities in the genomic distribution of somatic and germline mutations.more » « less
-
An organism becomes genetically mosaic through the accumulation of somatic mutations. Genetic mosaicism is a commonality of multicellular life and has been studied extensively in humans due to its associations with aging and diseases. In humans, somatic selection shapes the accumulation of somatic mutations, with strong signatures of positive somatic selection in cancer cell lineages. So far, evidence for somatic selection in plants has been inconsistent. The evolutionary implications of genetic mosaicism in humans and other animals are limited by early specification of germline cells, preventing transmission of somatic mutations to progeny. In contrast, many plant lineages reproduce asexually with clonal progeny derived from vegetative tissues. We describe the patterns and processes shaping somatic mutation accumulation within a single, 149-year-old historic sweet orange (Citrus sinensis) tree and within a clonal lineage of sweet orange. More than 12,000 somatic mutations were identified in the historic tree and 28,000 somatic mutations were identified across 199 clonally related sweet orange accessions. Both the spatial and genomic distributions of somatic mutations are non-random. The spatial patterns of somatic mutations across the historic tree depend on tree growth and development and their accumulation across the tree canopy recapitulates branching topology. Analysis of the genomic distribution of somatic mutations revealed that the subtelomeres, which are large arrays of ~180 bp repeats, are mutation hotspots. Finally, there was genomic evidence that somatic selection shapes the accumulation of somatic mutations both within the historic tree and also during clonal propagation.more » « less
-
The unique life form of plants promotes the accumulation of somatic mutations that can be passed to offspring in the next generation, because the same meristem cells responsible for vegetative growth also generate gametes for sexual reproduction. However, little is known about the consequences of somatic mutation accumulation for offspring fitness. We evaluate the fitness effects of somatic mutations in Mimulus guttatus by comparing progeny from self-pollinations made within the same flower (autogamy) to progeny from self-pollinations made between stems on the same plant (geitonogamy). The effects of somatic mutations are evident from this comparison, as autogamy leads to homozygosity of a proportion of somatic mutations, but progeny from geitonogamy remain heterozygous for mutations unique to each stem. In two different experiments, we find consistent fitness effects of somatic mutations from individual stems. Surprisingly, several progeny groups from autogamous crosses displayed increases in fitness compared to progeny from geitonogamy crosses, likely indicating that beneficial somatic mutations occurred in some stems. These results support the hypothesis that somatic mutations accumulate during vegetative growth, but they are filtered by different forms of selection that occur throughout development, resulting in the culling of expressed deleterious mutations and the retention of beneficial mutations.more » « less
-
Abstract The unique life form of plants promotes the accumulation of somatic mutations that can be passed to offspring in the next generation, because the same meristem cells responsible for vegetative growth also generate gametes for sexual reproduction. However, little is known about the consequences of somatic mutation accumulation for offspring fitness. We evaluate the fitness effects of somatic mutations in Mimulus guttatus by comparing progeny from self-pollinations made within the same flower (autogamy) to progeny from self-pollinations made between stems on the same plant (geitonogamy). The effects of somatic mutations are evident from this comparison, as autogamy leads to homozygosity of a proportion of somatic mutations, but progeny from geitonogamy remain heterozygous for mutations unique to each stem. In two different experiments, we find consistent fitness effects of somatic mutations from individual stems. Surprisingly, several progeny groups from autogamous crosses displayed increases in fitness compared to progeny from geitonogamy crosses, likely indicating that beneficial somatic mutations occurred in some stems. These results support the hypothesis that somatic mutations accumulate during vegetative growth, but they are filtered by different forms of selection that occur throughout development, resulting in the culling of expressed deleterious mutations and the retention of beneficial mutations.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abn0707
