Evolutionary dynamics of transposable elements in bdelloid rotifers

Transposable elements (TEs) are selfish genomic parasites whose ability to spread autonomously is facilitated by sexual reproduction in their hosts. If hosts become obligately asexual, TE frequencies and dynamics are predicted to change dramatically, but the long-term outcome is unclear. Here, we te...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	eLife Vol. 10
Main Authors:	Nowell, Reuben W, Wilson, Christopher G, Almeida, Pedro, Schiffer, Philipp H, Fontaneto, Diego, Becks, Lutz, Rodriguez, Fernando, Arkhipova, Irina R, Barraclough, Timothy G
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	England eLife Sciences Publications Ltd 05-02-2021 eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd
Subjects:	Animals Asexuality bdelloid rotifers Chromosomes DNA repair DNA Transposable Elements Endangered & extinct species Evolution evolution of sex Evolution, Molecular Evolutionary Biology Gene families Genes Genetics and Genomics Genomes Nucleotide sequence Population Recombination RNA-mediated interference RNAi Rotifera Rotifera - genetics Sexual reproduction Species Specificity transposable elements Whole Genome Sequencing RNAi evolutionary biology genetics bdelloid rotifers genomics evolution of sex transposable elements
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Summary:	Transposable elements (TEs) are selfish genomic parasites whose ability to spread autonomously is facilitated by sexual reproduction in their hosts. If hosts become obligately asexual, TE frequencies and dynamics are predicted to change dramatically, but the long-term outcome is unclear. Here, we test current theory using whole-genome sequence data from eight species of bdelloid rotifers, a class of invertebrates in which males are thus far unknown. Contrary to expectations, we find a variety of active TEs in bdelloid genomes, at an overall frequency within the range seen in sexual species. We find no evidence that TEs are spread by cryptic recombination or restrained by unusual DNA repair mechanisms. Instead, we find that that TE content evolves relatively slowly in bdelloids and that gene families involved in RNAi-mediated TE suppression have undergone significant expansion, which might mitigate the deleterious effects of active TEs and compensate for the consequences of long-term asexuality.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	2050-084X 2050-084X
DOI:	10.7554/elife.63194