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. 2024 Jul 11;11(9):uhae194.
doi: 10.1093/hr/uhae194. eCollection 2024 Sep.

Genomic data provides insights into the evolutionary history and adaptive differentiation of two tetraploid strawberries

Affiliations

Genomic data provides insights into the evolutionary history and adaptive differentiation of two tetraploid strawberries

Hanyang Lin et al. Hortic Res. .

Abstract

Over the decades, evolutionists and ecologists have shown intense interest in the role of polyploidization in plant evolution. Without clear knowledge of the diploid ancestor(s) of polyploids, we would not be able to answer fundamental ecological questions such as the evolution of niche differences between them or its underlying genetic basis. Here, we explored the evolutionary history of two Fragaria tetraploids, Fragaria corymbosa and Fragaria moupinensis. We de novo assembled five genomes including these two tetraploids and three diploid relatives. Based on multiple lines of evidence, we found no evidence of subgenomes in either of the two tetraploids, suggesting autopolyploid origins. We determined that Fragaria chinensis was the diploid ancestor of F. corymbosa while either an extinct species affinitive to F. chinensis or an unsampled population of F. chinensis could be the progenitor of F. moupinensis. Meanwhile, we found introgression signals between F. chinensis and Fragaria pentaphylla, leading to the genomic similarity between these two diploids. Compared to F. chinensis, gene families related to high ultraviolet (UV)-B and DNA repair were expanded, while those that responded towards abiotic and biotic stresses (such as salt stress, wounding, and various pathogens) were contracted in both tetraploids. Furthermore, the two tetraploids tended to down-regulate defense response genes but up-regulate UV-B response, DNA repairing, and cell division gene expression compared to F. chinensis. These findings may reflect adaptions toward high-altitude habitats. In summary, our work provides insights into the genome evolution of wild Fragaria tetraploids and opens up an avenue for future works to answer deeper evolutionary and ecological questions regarding the strawberry genus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
An overview of five sequenced Fragaria species. (a) The sampling localities and photographs of sequenced Fragaria individuals showing the overall morphological features and reproductive organs. Photo credits: the authors. (b) The genome features of Fragaria corymbosa and Fragaria moupinensis showing (i) gene synteny blocks; (ii) the labels of pseudo-chromosomes; (iii) sequence positions; (iv) GC contents; and (v) gene densities. (c) The k-mer spectra and fitted models of F. corymbosa and F. moupinensis genomes. (d) The distribution of TE profiles along the first and second axes of principal components.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Identification of the most likely diploid ancestors of the two Fragaria tetraploids. (a) The consensus ML tree based on the concatenated sequences of 6054 single-copy orthologous genes. The bootstrap values are shown near nodes. The numbers of expanded (red) or contracted (blue) gene families of each Fragaria species are shown on the right of the tip labels. (b) The ASTRAL species tree regarding the two tetraploids and their close relatives summarized from 6054 ML gene trees. The values of local posterior probability are shown. (c) Reads mapping rates of Fragaria corymbosa and Fragaria moupinensis individuals to the composite genome constituted by nine Fragaria diploids shown by the sppIDer analysis.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Genetic admixtures among the two tetraploids and their close relatives revealed by genome-resequencing data. (a) Reads mapping rates of Fragaria chinensis individuals to the composite genome constituted by ten Fragaria species shown by the sppIDer analysis. Fco = Fragaria corymbosa, Fpe = Fragaria pentaphylla, Fmo = Fragaria moupinensis, Fnu = Fragaria nubicola, Fda = Fragaria daltoniana, Fni = Fragaria nilgerrensis, Fvi = Fragaria viridis, Fii = Fragaria iinumae, Fma = Fragaria mandshurica, Fve = Fragaria vesca. (b) The D-statistics among these species. F. nilgerrensis was designated as the outgroup consistently. A warmer color indicates a greater D-statistic hence a stronger signal of introgression. Only significant D-statistics (Z-score > 3) are shown.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Enriched GO terms of genes that exclusively expanded (the left panel, red) or contracted (the right panel, blue) in Fragaria corymbosa (Fco) and Fragaria moupinensis (Fmo) compared to Fragaria chinensis. The heatmap corresponds to the p-value of Fisher’s exact test (with Benjamini and Hochberg FDR correction). The dot size corresponds to the gene ratio.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Enriched GO terms of genes that up-regulated (the left panel, red) or down-regulated (the right panel, blue) in Fragaria corymbosa (Fco) and Fragaria moupinensis (Fmo) compared to Fragaria chinensis. The heatmap corresponds to the p-value of Fisher’s exact test (with Benjamini and Hochberg FDR correction). The dot size corresponds to the gene ratio.

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