http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13 2013-05-21T10:00:11Z 2013-05-21T10:00:11Z Carleton, Karen L. Spady, Tyrone C Streelman, J. Todd Kidd, Michael R. McFarland, William N. Loew, Ellis R. http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13385 2013-01-11T03:34:49Z 2008-05-23T00:00:00Z

Title: Visual sensitivities tuned by heterochronic shifts in opsin gene expression Authors: Carleton, Karen L.; Spady, Tyrone C; Streelman, J. Todd; Kidd, Michael R.; McFarland, William N.; Loew, Ellis R. Abstract: Background Cichlid fishes have radiated into hundreds of species in the Great Lakes of Africa. Brightly colored males display on leks and vie to be chosen by females as mates. Strong discrimination by females causes differential male mating success, rapid evolution of male color patterns and, possibly, speciation. In addition to differences in color pattern, Lake Malawi cichlids also show some of the largest known shifts in visual sensitivity among closely related species. These shifts result from modulated expression of seven cone opsin genes. However, the mechanisms for this modulated expression are unknown. Results In this work, we ask whether these differences might result from changes in developmental patterning of cone opsin genes. To test this, we compared the developmental pattern of cone opsin gene expression of the Nile tilapia, Oreochromis niloticus, with that of several cichlid species from Lake Malawi. In tilapia, quantitative polymerase chain reaction showed that opsin gene expression changes dynamically from a larval gene set through a juvenile set to a final adult set. In contrast, Lake Malawi species showed one of two developmental patterns. In some species, the expressed gene set changes slowly, either retaining the larval pattern or progressing only from larval to juvenile gene sets (neoteny). In the other species, the same genes are expressed in both larvae and adults but correspond to the tilapia adult genes (direct development). Conclusion Differences in visual sensitivities among species of Lake Malawi cichlids arise through heterochronic shifts relative to the ontogenetic pattern of the tilapia outgroup. Heterochrony has previously been shown to be a powerful mechanism for change in morphological evolution. We found that altering developmental expression patterns is also an important mechanism for altering sensory systems. These resulting sensory shifts will have major impacts on visual communication and could help drive cichlid speciation.

2008-05-23T00:00:00Z Chung, J. Sook http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13384 2013-01-11T03:48:02Z 2008-12-12T00:00:00Z

Title: A trehalose 6-phosphate synthase gene of the hemocytes of the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus: cloning, the expression, its enzyme activity and relationship to hemolymph trehalose levels Authors: Chung, J. Sook Abstract: Trehalose in ectoderms functions in energy metabolism and protection in extreme environmental conditions. We structurally characterized trehalose 6-phosphate synthase (TPS) from hemocytes of the blue crab, Callinectes sapidus. C. sapidus Hemo TPS (CasHemoTPS), like insect TPS, encodes both TPS and trehalose phosphate phosphatase domains. Trehalose seems to be a major sugar, as it shows higher levels than does glucose in hemocytes and hemolymph. Increases in HemoTPS expression, TPS enzyme activity in hemocytes, and hemolymph trehalose levels were determined 24 h after lipopolysaccharide challenge, suggesting that both TPS and TPP domains of CasHemoTPS are active and functional. The TPS gene has a wide tissue distribution in C. sapidus, suggesting multiple biosynthetic sites. A correlation between TPS activity in hemocytes and hemolymph trehalose levels was found during the molt cycle. The current study provides the first evidence of presence of trehalose in hemocytes and TPS in tissues of C. sapidus and implicates its functional role in energy metabolism and physiological adaptation.

2008-12-12T00:00:00Z Zimin, Aleksey V Delcher, Arthur L Florea, Liliana Kelley, David R Schatz, Michael C Puiu, Daniela Hanrahan, Finnian Pertea, Geo Van Tassell, Curtis P Sonstegard, Tad S Marcais, Guillaume Roberts, Michael Subramanian, Poorani Yorke, James A Salzberg, Steven L http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13383 2013-01-11T03:34:18Z 2009-04-29T00:00:00Z

Title: A whole-genome assembly of the domestic cow, Bos taurus Authors: Zimin, Aleksey V; Delcher, Arthur L; Florea, Liliana; Kelley, David R; Schatz, Michael C; Puiu, Daniela; Hanrahan, Finnian; Pertea, Geo; Van Tassell, Curtis P; Sonstegard, Tad S; Marcais, Guillaume; Roberts, Michael; Subramanian, Poorani; Yorke, James A; Salzberg, Steven L Abstract: Background: The genome of the domestic cow, Bos taurus, was sequenced using a mixture of hierarchical and whole-genome shotgun sequencing methods. Results: We have assembled the 35 million sequence reads and applied a variety of assembly improvement techniques, creating an assembly of 2.86 billion base pairs that has multiple improvements over previous assemblies: it is more complete, covering more of the genome; thousands of gaps have been closed; many erroneous inversions, deletions, and translocations have been corrected; and thousands of single-nucleotide errors have been corrected. Our evaluation using independent metrics demonstrates that the resulting assembly is substantially more accurate and complete than alternative versions. Conclusions: By using independent mapping data and conserved synteny between the cow and human genomes, we were able to construct an assembly with excellent large-scale contiguity in which a large majority (approximately 91%) of the genome has been placed onto the 30 B. taurus chromosomes. We constructed a new cow-human synteny map that expands upon previous maps. We also identified for the first time a portion of the B. taurus Y chromosome.

2009-04-29T00:00:00Z Phillippy, Adam M Deng, Xiangyu Zhang, Wei Salzberg, Steven L http://hdl.handle.net/1903/13382 2013-01-11T03:41:25Z 2009-09-16T00:00:00Z

Title: Efficient oligonucleotide probe selection for pan-genomic tiling arrays Authors: Phillippy, Adam M; Deng, Xiangyu; Zhang, Wei; Salzberg, Steven L Abstract: Background: Array comparative genomic hybridization is a fast and cost-effective method for detecting, genotyping, and comparing the genomic sequence of unknown bacterial isolates. This method, as with all microarray applications, requires adequate coverage of probes targeting the regions of interest. An unbiased tiling of probes across the entire length of the genome is the most flexible design approach. However, such a whole-genome tiling requires that the genome sequence is known in advance. For the accurate analysis of uncharacterized bacteria, an array must query a fully representative set of sequences from the species' pan-genome. Prior microarrays have included only a single strain per array or the conserved sequences of gene families. These arrays omit potentially important genes and sequence variants from the pan-genome. Results: This paper presents a new probe selection algorithm (PanArray) that can tile multiple whole genomes using a minimal number of probes. Unlike arrays built on clustered gene families, PanArray uses an unbiased, probe-centric approach that does not rely on annotations, gene clustering, or multi-alignments. Instead, probes are evenly tiled across all sequences of the pangenome at a consistent level of coverage. To minimize the required number of probes, probes conserved across multiple strains in the pan-genome are selected first, and additional probes are used only where necessary to span polymorphic regions of the genome. The viability of the algorithm is demonstrated by array designs for seven different bacterial pan-genomes and, in particular, the design of a 385,000 probe array that fully tiles the genomes of 20 different Listeria monocytogenes strains with overlapping probes at greater than twofold coverage. Conclusion: PanArray is an oligonucleotide probe selection algorithm for tiling multiple genome sequences using a minimal number of probes. It is capable of fully tiling all genomes of a species on a single microarray chip. These unique pan-genome tiling arrays provide maximum flexibility for the analysis of both known and uncharacterized strains.

2009-09-16T00:00:00Z