Structural vs regulatory mutation Flashcards
Pre-2007, most scientists believed adaptive mutations were mostly…
structural
Post-2007, many scientists will argue that adaptive mutations are largely…
regulatory
Why was there such an increase in support for regulatory mutations post-2007?
Due to advances in sequencing technology
What is the regulatory hypothesis?
What kind of regulation is it referring to?
Adaptations are due to mutations in regulatory sequences
cis-regulation
What is cis-regulation?
CREs encode binding sites for TSFs and thus regulate nearby genes
Give 3 arguments for the regulatory hypothesis.
- Diversity in cell types is caused by changes to regulation (regulation can bring about vastly different phenotypes in the same area)
- Changes in the expression of genes underlie morphological traits (so is plausible new regulation could create a new trait)
- Pleiotropy constrains coding sequence, regulatory mutations do not have this problem
What is pleiotropy?
When a single gene has multiple seemingly unrelated effects
Why is pleiotropy difficult in adaptation?
If the same gene has different functions in multiple tissues, then a mutation that is beneficial in one area is likely to be detrimental somewhere else
Who thinks that both regulatory and structural are important in adaptation, not just one or the other? There are two examples.
Stern and Orgogozo, 2008
Hoekstra and Coyne, 2007
What did Stern and Orgogozo (2008) say about our understanding of both regulatory and structural mutations?
Recent advances in genome technology have made it easier to detect regulatory
Most adaptive mutations after 2007 found are regulatory, suggests our knowledge of structural is saturated
Give to examples of regulatory mutations.
- Stickleback pelvic spines
2. Mouse coat colour
Who studied spine morphs in sticklebacks?
What is the latin name for the threespine stickleback?
Shapiro et al., 2004
G. aculeatus
Shapiro et al., 2004
Why do sticklebacks have different spine morphs?
Marine species need them for predator defence
Freshwater species do not need them for predator defence plus it allows faster growth and storage of overwinter fat reserves
Shapiro et al., 2004
Why is it less costly for marine sticklebacks to produce spines?
Because the Ca2+ in the water allows calcification
Shapiro et al., 2004
In QTL mapping, what did they cross to produce the F1?
What did they observe in the F1? What does this indicate?
What did they observe in the F2? What did they do?
What did QTL mapping implicate in spine morph?
A marine (spined) female and a freshwater (non-spined) male
All F1 had spines, indicating spines are dominant/no spines is recessive
F2 had a range of spine sizes, scored these for analysis
1 major chromosome and 4 minor chromosomes as QTLs for spines