According to a study, phenotypic features have evolved due to genetic alterations

 ANI, January 08, 2023 

ANI, Washington, US, January 8: What genetic alterations have phenotypic features evolved as a result of? It is not always simple to respond to this question. Now that a new technique has been created, the search is considerably simpler.

In situations like this, where plant and animal species separately evolve traits that are the same shape and function, science refers to this as "convergent evolution." There are several instances of this: Even though they are animals, fish and whales both have fins. Birds and bats have wings, and many other animals, including jellyfish, scorpions, and insects, have developed the same weaponry for employing poison to protect themselves against attackers: the deadly sting.

There is no doubt that experts from all over the world are curious to learn what genetic alterations in the various species led to the evolution of similar traits in them despite the fact that they are unrelated to one another.

Finding it is proving challenging: According to Dr. Kenji Fukushima of the Julius-Maximilians-Universitat (JMU) Wurzburg, a plant physiologist, "Such qualities – we talk of phenotypes — are of course always encoded in genomic sequences." New features can emerge as a result of mutations, which are alterations in the genetic code.

However, because the underlying mutations are generally random and neutral, genetic alterations seldom result in phenotypic evolution. The identification of phenotypically significant alterations is therefore particularly challenging due to the enormous quantity of mutations that accumulate throughout the extraordinarily long time scale at which evolutionary processes take place.

In the hunt for the genetic basis of phenotypic features, Fukushima and his colleague David D. Pollock of the University of Colorado (USA) have now succeeded in inventing a technique that yields noticeably better results than previously employed techniques. In the most recent edition of the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, they outline their strategy.

The primary outcome of the recently released work is summarised by Fukushima as follows: "We have devised an unique measure of molecular evolution that can properly represent the pace of convergent evolution in protein-coding DNA sequences." He claims that this new technique can show which genetic alterations are connected to an organism's phenotypes throughout the course of hundreds of millions of years of evolution. Thus, it presents a chance to further our understanding of how phenotypic novelties brought about by DNA modifications give rise to a wide variety of species.

The work of Fukushima and Pollock is based on an important advancement in the life sciences: the decoding and subsequent availability for study of an increasing number of genome sequences of numerous live creatures from a variety of species in recent years. This, according to Fukushima, has made it feasible to analyse the interactions between genotypes and phenotypes on a broad scale at a macroevolutionary level.

When interpreting the data, there is frequently a risk of "false-positive convergence," which is when the result predicts a correlation between a mutation and a specific trait that does not actually exist. This is because many molecular changes are nearly neutral and have no effect on any traits. Such false-positive convergences could also be brought on by methodological biases.

To solve this issue, Fukushima says, "We broadened the framework and created a new metric that quantifies the error-adjusted convergence rate of protein evolution." This, he claims, allows us to separate natural selection in simulations and real-world cases from genetic noise and phylogenetic mistakes. The method allows for bidirectional searches for genotype-phenotype connections, even in lineages that have diverged over hundreds of millions of years, he claims, and is strengthened by a heuristic algorithm.

To test the effectiveness of the measure they created, the two researchers examined more than 20 million branch combinations in the genes of vertebrate organisms. They intend to use this technology on carnivorous plants as a further step. The objective is to understand the genetic underpinnings that contribute to these plants' capacity to draw in, seize, and digest prey. To solve this issue, Fukushima says, "We broadened the framework and created a new metric that quantifies the error-adjusted convergence rate of protein evolution." This, he claims, allows us to separate natural selection in simulations and real-world cases from genetic noise and phylogenetic mistakes. The method allows for bidirectional searches for genotype-phenotype connections, even in lineages that have diverged over hundreds of millions of years, he claims, and is strengthened by a heuristic algorithm.

To test the effectiveness of the measure they created, the two researchers examined more than 20 million branch combinations in the genes of vertebrate organisms. They intend to use this technology on carnivorous plants as a further step. The objective is to understand the genetic underpinnings that contribute to these plants' capacity to draw in, seize, and digest prey. (ANI)

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