Rapid Divergence Of The Copulation Proteins In The Drosophila Dunni Group Is Associated With Hybrid Post-Mating-Prezygotic Incompatibilities

Abstract

Background: Proteins involved in post-copulatory interactions between males and females are among the fastest evolving genes in many species and this has been attributed to reproductive conflict. Likely as a result, these proteins are frequently involved in cases of post-mating-prezygotic isolation between species. The Drosophila dunni subgroup consists of a dozen recently diverged species found across the Caribbean islands with varying levels of hybrid incompatibility.Results: We performed experimental crosses between species in the dunni group and find evidence of hybrid inviability likely due to post-mating-prezygotic incompatibilities. We next assessed rates of evolution between these species genomes and find evidence of rapid evolution and divergence of some reproductive proteins, specifically the seminal fluid proteins.Conclusions: This work suggests the rapid evolution of seminal fluid proteins can lead to post-mating-prezygotic isolation, which acts as a barrier for gene flow between even the most closely related species.

Highly contiguous assemblies of 101 drosophilid genomes

“…Long reads have proved to be a way to quickly generate affordable yet high-quality genomes, in fact the cost of a highly contiguous and complete Drosophila assembly based on long-read sequencing was recently estimated to be about $1,000 US dollars ( Miller et al, 2018 ; Solares et al, 2018 ), orders of magnitude less than the first D. melanogaster genome. While a number of studies have already used long reads to assemble the genomes of one or a few drosophilid species ( Bracewell et al, 2019 ; Chakraborty et al, 2021 ; Comeault et al, 2020 ; Flynn et al, 2020 ; Hill et al, 2020 ; Mai et al, 2020 ; Miller et al, 2018 ; Paris et al, 2020 ; Rezvykh et al, 2021 ; Solares et al, 2018 ), a sequencing and genome assembly project at a scale similar to that of the large genome assembly consortia, especially without similar resources and funding, remains challenging even with the benefits of long reads. Yet, there continue to be rapid improvements to long-read sequencing that may alleviate some of these logistical challenges.…”

Highly contiguous assemblies of 101 drosophilid genomes

“…Long-read sequencing simplifies many genome assembly challenges by fully spanning complex regions, such as repetitive elements (generally <10kb in length), and allows generation of chromosome-level assemblies at a reasonable cost. A number of recent studies have used long-read technology to assemble high-quality Drosophila genomes for several species groups (Bracewell et al, 2019; Chakraborty et al, 2019; Hill et al, 2020; Mai et al, 2020; Miller et al, 2018). Notably, Miller et al (2018) estimated the cost of a high-quality long-read assembly at US $1,000, a significant milestone in the democratization of large genome assembly projects.…”