Abstract
Adaptive radiation and evolutionary stasis are characterized by very different evolution rates. The main aim of this study was to investigate if any genes have a special role to a high or low evolution rate. The availability of animal genomes permitted comparison of gene content of genomes of 24 vertebrate species that evolved through adaptive radiation (representing high evolutionary rate) and of 20 vertebrate species that are considered as living fossils (representing a slow evolutionary rate or evolutionary stasis). Mammals, birds, reptiles, and bony fishes were included in the analysis. Pathway analysis was performed for genes found to be specific in adaptive radiation or evolutionary stasis respectively. Pathway analysis revealed that DNA repair and cellular response to DNA damage are important (false discovery rate = 8.35 × 10−5; 7.15 × 10−6, respectively) for species evolved through adaptive radiation. This was confirmed by further genetic in silico analysis (p = 5.30 × 10−3). Nucleotide excision repair and base excision repair were the most significant pathways. Additionally, the number of DNA repair genes was found to be linearly related to the genome size and the protein number (proteome) of the 44 animals analyzed (p < 1.00 × 10−4), this being compatible with Drake’s rule. This is the first study where radiated and living fossil species have been genetically compared. Evidence has been found that cancer-related genes have a special role in radiated species. Linear association of the number of DNA repair genes with the species genome size has also been revealed. These comparative genetics results can support the idea of punctuated equilibrium evolution.
Highlights
Adaptive radiation is a well-known phenomenon in evolutionary biology, where a taxon is split in multiple species which become adapted in a variety of environments in short evolutionary time
Species included in this study—genome data The literature was carefully searched for all animal species that can be characterized as living fossils (LF) or radiated (R)
A big number of genomes have been compared under the prism of evolutionary stasis and adaptive radiation
Summary
Adaptive radiation is a well-known phenomenon in evolutionary biology, where a taxon is split in multiple species which become adapted in a variety of environments in short evolutionary time. This phenomenon is mostly known in islands like the great examples of Darwin finches [1] and the Hawaiian drosophilas, other major adaptive radiations have occurred in other animals like cichlids, bats, and cetaceans [2–5]. It is very likely that common evolutionary and molecular processes have been followed in all taxa that have experienced adaptive radiation [6, 7]. No such common molecular pathways have been identified so far. Characteristic examples of taxa that are considered by most biologists as living
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