The RNA interference (RNAi) mechanism is a conserved system of nucleic acid manipulation, based on the interaction between small RNA guide molecules and Argonaute effector proteins. RNAi pathways are found in the vast majority of eukaryotes, and have diversified into a broad array of functions including gene regulation, antiviral immunity and transposable element (TE) suppression. Many of these functional innovations coincide with duplication of Argonaute genes, suggesting that gene duplication may be a key driving force in the diversification of RNAi. However, few studies have explicitly investigated Argonaute evolution after duplication. In this thesis, I focused on the impact of gene duplication on the evolution of Argonaute genes. Argonaute genes in different species exhibit a broad array of functions; however, most of our knowledge of Argonaute function in the arthropods is based on studies in D. melanogaster. To compare the rate of duplication and its evolutionary effect between different Argonaute subclades, I quantified gene turnover rates and evolutionary rate change in Argonaute genes from 86 Dipteran species (Chapter 2). I find that duplication rate varies widely between subclades and lineages, and that duplication drives an increase in evolutionary rate, suggesting that functional divergence after Argonaute duplication is prevalent throughout the Diptera. In the obscura group of Drosophila I identified a series of recent duplications of Argonaute2 (Ago2), which has antiviral and anti-TE functions in D. melanogaster. To quantify the extent of functional divergence between these paralogues, I measured the expression of paralogues from three species (D. subobscura, D. obscura and D. pseudoobscura), in different tissues and under viral challenge (Chapter 3). I find that the majority of Ago2 paralogues have specialised to a derived testis-specific role, potentially to suppress TE activity or meiotic drive. While CRISPR-Cas9 mediated knockout of these genes ultimately proved unsuccessful (Chapter 5), the selective importance of their derived function is suggested by its multiple independent origins. Functional novelty, as appears to have evolved in the obscura group Ago2 paralogues, is often driven by strong selection. To quantify the evolutionary rate and positive selection on these paralogues, I gathered intraspecies polymorphism data for all paralogues in D. subobscura, D. obscura and D. pseudoobscura, combining this with publicly-available population genomic data for D. pseudoobscura (Chapter 4). I find that the majority of paralogues in all species have extremely low diversity, indicative of recent selection, and identify recent selective sweeps on three paralogues in D. pseudoobscura. This suggests that the majority of Ago2 paralogues in the obscura group are evolving under strong positive selection. In this thesis I have aimed to quantify the effect of gene duplication on Argonaute evolution. I find that Argonaute genes duplicate frequently in some lineages, resulting in the evolution of derived functions that may be driven by positive selection. This suggests that functional diversification is prevalent in eukaryotic RNAi, and is likely to coincide with expansion of the Argonaute gene family.

La publication du génome de la paramécie (Aury, 2006) a révélé une séquence atypique particulièrement intéressante pour les études de génomique évolutive. Au cours de cette thèse, j’ai mené une analyse bioinformatique détaillée de ce génome en me concentrant particulièrement sur les trois points suivants : 1) Le rôle de deux classes distinctes de petits ARN fonctionnels non codants, l’une intervenant dans les processus de régulation de l’expression des gènes tandis que l’autre participe aux réarrangements génomiques (élimination de fragments d’ADN) associés au cycle sexuel de la paramécie. 2) L’évolution des paires de gènes après une duplication globale de génome (WGD). En effet, avec une WGD relativement récente précédée de deux autres WGDs plus anciennes encore bien visibles, la paramécie est un modèle de choix pour cette étude. Nous avons pu montrer que la rétention des deux copies d’un gène après une WGD est fortement corrélée au niveau d’expression des gènes. Nous proposons un modèle basé sur les coûts et bénéfices de l’expression des gènes pour expliquer cette observation. 3) L’analyse de contraintes sélectives sur les introns pour produire des messagers détectables par le Nonsense-Mediated mRNA Decay (NMD). Ces contraintes sélectives, mises en évidence initialement chez la paramécie, se sont avérées être présentes chez tous les eucaryotes que nous avons pu analyser, ce qui nous amène à questionner l’efficacité des mécanismes d’épissage chez les eucaryotes et le rôle du NMD dans la prévention des erreurs d’épissage. L’ensemble de ces analyses a permis de mieux comprendre un certain nombre de mécanismes évolutifs universels / This work presents a detailed analysis of the paramecium genome, with focusing more precisely on the 3 following topics : 1) The role of two distinct classes of small non-coding RNAs. The first one (siRNAs) being involved in post-transcriptional gene silencing while the other (scanRNAs) plays a crucial role during the massive genomic rearrangements that occur in ciliates after sexual reproduction (Lepère et al. 2009). 2) The evolution of duplicated genes following Whole-Genome Duplications (WGDs). Indeed, the paramecium genome contains evidences for 3 successive WGDs (Aury et al. 2006), which explains why this organisms is perfectly well suited for such an analysis. We show that retention of duplicated genes is strongly correlated to their expression level and we propose a model based on cost and benefit of gene expression to explain this pattern. 3) The analysis of the extremely tiny introns in paramecium (99% of introns are less than 20-33nt in length) revealed the presence of a translational control of splicing in eukaryotes. This work suggests that splicing errors are frequent and that eukaryotic cells rely on the Nonsense-mediated mRNA Decay to detect aberrant transcripts produced by splicing errors (Jaillon et al. 2008). These analyses provide new insights on several evolutionary mechanisms that shape the genomes of eukaryotes

Comparisons of flowering plant genomes reveal multiple rounds of ancient polyploidy characterized by large intragenomic syntenic blocks. Three such whole-genome duplication (WGD) events, designated as rho (rho), sigma (sigma), and tau (tau), have been identified in the genomes of cereal grasses. Precise dating of these WGD events is necessary to investigate how they have influenced diversification rates, evolutionary innovations, and genomic characteristics such as the GC profile of protein-coding sequences. The timing of these events has remained uncertain due to the paucity of monocot genome sequence data outside the grass family (Poaceae). Phylogenomic analysis of protein-coding genes from sequenced genomes and transcriptome assemblies from 35 species, including representatives of all families within the Poales, has resolved the timing of rho and sigma relative to speciation events and placed tau prior to divergence of Asparagales and the commelinids but after divergence with eudicots. Examination of gene family phylogenies indicates that rho occurred just prior to the diversification of Poaceae and sigma occurred before early diversification of Poales lineages but after the Poales-commelinid split. Additional lineage-specific WGD events were identified on the basis of the transcriptome data. Gene families exhibiting high GC content are underrepresented among those with duplicate genes that persisted following these genome duplications. However, genome duplications had little overall influence on lineage-specific changes in the GC content of coding genes. Improved resolution of the timing of WGD events in monocot history provides evidence for the influence of polyploidization on functional evolution and species diversification.

No description available.

Nucleosome positioning is involved in a variety of cellular processes, and it provides a likely substrate for species evolution and may play roles in human disease. However, many fundamental aspects of nucleosome positioning remain controversial, such as the relative importance of underlying sequence features, genomic neighbourhood and trans-acting factors. In this thesis, I have focused on analyses of the divergence and conservation of nucleosome positioning, associated substitution spectra, and the interplay between them. I have investigated the extent to which nucleosome positioning patterns change following the duplication of a DNA sequence and its insertion into a new genomic region within the same species, by assessing the relative nucleosome positioning between paralogous regions in both the human (using in vitro and in vivo datasets) and yeast (in vivo) genomes. I observed that the positioning of paralogous nucleosomes is generally well conserved and detected a strong rotational preference where nucleosome positioning has diverged. I have also found, in all datasets, that DNA sequence features appear to be more important than local chromosomal environments in nucleosome positioning evolution, while controlling for trans-acting factors that can potentially confound inter-species comparisons. I have also examined the relationships between chromatin structure and DNA sequence variation, with a particular focus on the spectra of (germline and somatic) substitutions seen in human diseases. Both somatic and germline substitutions are found to be enriched at sequences coinciding with nucleosome cores. In addition, transitions appear to be enriched in germline relative to somatic substitutions at nucleosome core regions. This difference in transition to transversion ratio is also seen at transcription start sites (TSSs) genome wide. However, the contrasts seen between somatic and germline mutational spectra do not appear to be attributable to alterations in nucleosome positioning between cell types. Examination of multiple human nucleosome positioning datasets shows conserved positioning across TSSs and strongly conserved global phasing between 4 cancer cell lines and 7 non-cancer cell lines. This suggests that the particular mutational profiles seen for somatic and germline cells occur upon a common landscape of conserved chromatin structure. I extended my studies of mutational spectra by analysing genome sequencing data from various tissues in a cohort of individuals to identify human somatic mutations. This allowed an assessment of the relationship between age and mutation accumulation and a search for inherited genetic variants linked to high somatic mutation rates. A list of candidate germline variants that potentially predispose to increased somatic mutation rates was the outcome. Together these analyses contribute to an integrated view of genome evolution, encompassing the divergence of DNA sequence and chromatin structure, and explorations of how they may interact in human disease.

The shikimate pathway links carbohydrate metabolism to the biosynthesis of the aromatic amino acids and an enormous variety of aromatic compounds with essential functions in all kingdoms of life. Aromatic compounds derived from the plant shikimate pathway have substantial biotechnological value and many are essential to the diet of metazoans whose genomes do not encode shikimate pathway enzymes. Despite its importance to the physiology of plants and human health the regulatory mechanisms of the plant shikimate pathway are not well understood. Shikimate kinase (SK) genes encode an intermediate step in the shikimate pathway and were previously implicated in regulation of the plant shikimate pathway. The distribution of SK genes in higher plants was resolved using phylogenetic and biochemical methods. The two SK isoforms of Arabidopsis thaliana, AtSK1 and AtSK2, were functionally characterized. AtSK1 expression is induced by heat stress and the recombinant enzyme was shown to form a homodimer which is important for maintaining the stability and activity of the enzyme at elevated temperatures. The crystal structure of AtSK2, the first reported plant SK structure, identified structural features unique to plant SKs which may perform important regulatory functions. The resolution of bona fide SKs in higher plants led to the discovery of two novel neofunctionalized homologs - Shikimate Kinase-Like 1 (SKL1) and SKL2. These novel genes evolved from SK gene duplicates over 400 million years ago and are found in all major extant angiosperm lineages, suggesting they were important in the development of biological properties required by land plants. The description of albino and variegated skl1 mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana implicate the SKL1 gene product as an important regulator of chloroplast biogenesis. Functional assays were attempted to determine the biochemical function of SKL1 and recombinant constructs of the Arabidopsis thaliana SKL1 protein were crystallized towards structure determination. The results of this thesis further our understanding of the organization and regulation of the plant shikimate pathway. Furthermore, the discovery of SKL1 may yield important insights into chloroplast biogenesis and function. The evolution of the plant SK superfamily highlights the utility of SKs as scaffolds for functional innovation.

The shikimate pathway links carbohydrate metabolism to the biosynthesis of the aromatic amino acids and an enormous variety of aromatic compounds with essential functions in all kingdoms of life. Aromatic compounds derived from the plant shikimate pathway have substantial biotechnological value and many are essential to the diet of metazoans whose genomes do not encode shikimate pathway enzymes. Despite its importance to the physiology of plants and human health the regulatory mechanisms of the plant shikimate pathway are not well understood. Shikimate kinase (SK) genes encode an intermediate step in the shikimate pathway and were previously implicated in regulation of the plant shikimate pathway. The distribution of SK genes in higher plants was resolved using phylogenetic and biochemical methods. The two SK isoforms of Arabidopsis thaliana, AtSK1 and AtSK2, were functionally characterized. AtSK1 expression is induced by heat stress and the recombinant enzyme was shown to form a homodimer which is important for maintaining the stability and activity of the enzyme at elevated temperatures. The crystal structure of AtSK2, the first reported plant SK structure, identified structural features unique to plant SKs which may perform important regulatory functions. The resolution of bona fide SKs in higher plants led to the discovery of two novel neofunctionalized homologs - Shikimate Kinase-Like 1 (SKL1) and SKL2. These novel genes evolved from SK gene duplicates over 400 million years ago and are found in all major extant angiosperm lineages, suggesting they were important in the development of biological properties required by land plants. The description of albino and variegated skl1 mutants in Arabidopsis thaliana implicate the SKL1 gene product as an important regulator of chloroplast biogenesis. Functional assays were attempted to determine the biochemical function of SKL1 and recombinant constructs of the Arabidopsis thaliana SKL1 protein were crystallized towards structure determination. The results of this thesis further our understanding of the organization and regulation of the plant shikimate pathway. Furthermore, the discovery of SKL1 may yield important insights into chloroplast biogenesis and function. The evolution of the plant SK superfamily highlights the utility of SKs as scaffolds for functional innovation.

The rewrite relation with parameters m and n and with the possible length limit = k or :::; k we denote by w~, =kW~· or ::;kw~ respectively. The idempotency languages generated from a starting word w by the respective operations are wD<l::', w=kD<l::' and W<;kD<l::'.Also other special cases of idempotency languages besides duplication have come up in different contexts. The investigations of Ito et al. about insertion and deletion, Le., operations that are also observed in DNA molecules, have established that w5 and w~ both preserve regularity.Our investigations about idempotency relations and languages start out from the case of a uniform length bound. For these relations =kW~ the conditions for confluence are characterized completely. Also the question of regularity is -k n answered for aH the languages w- D<lm . They are nearly always regular. Only the languages wD<lo for n > 1 are more complicated and belong to the class of context-free languages.For a generallength bound, i.e."for the relations :"::kW~, confluence does not hold so frequently. This complicatedness of the relations results also in more complicated languages, which are often non-regular, as for example the languages W<;kD<l::' for aH bounds k 2 4. For k :::; 2 they are regular. The case of k :::; 3, though, remains open. We show, however, that none of these languages ever exceeds the complexity of being context-free.Without any length bound, idempotency relations have a very complicated structure. Over alphabets of one or two letters we still characterize the conditions for confluence. Over three or more letters, in contrast, only a few cases are solved. We determine the combinations of parameters that result in the regularity of wD<l::', when the alphabet of w contains only two letters. Only the case of 2 :::; m < n remains open.In a second chapter sorne more involved questions are solved for the special case of duplication. First we shed sorne light on the reasons why it is so difficult to determine the context-freeness ofduplication languages. We show that they fulfiH aH pumping properties and that they are very dense. Therefore aH the standard tools to prove non-context-freness do not apply here.The concept of root in Formal Language ·Theory is frequently used to describe the reduction of a word to another one, which is in sorne sense elementary.For example, there are primitive roots, periodicity roots, etc. Elementary in connection with duplication are square-free words, Le., words that do not contain any repetition. Thus we define the duplication root of w to consist of aH the square-free words, from which w can be reached via the relation w~.Besides sorne general observations we prove the decidability of the question, whether the duplication root of a language is finite.Then we devise acode, which is robust under duplication of its code words.This would keep the result of a computation from being destroyed by dupli cations in the code words. We determine the exact conditions, under which infinite such codes exist: over an alphabet of two letters they exist for a length bound of 2, over three letters already for a length bound of 1.Also we apply duplication to entire languages rather than to single words; then it is interesting to determine, whether regular and context-free languages are closed under this operation. We show that the regular languages are closed under uniformly bounded duplication, while they are not closed under duplication with a generallength bound. The context-free languages are closed under both operations.The thesis concludes with a list of open problems related with the thesis' topics.

<p>Gene duplication is an important evolutionary tool for fostering diversification and expanding gene families. However, while this concept is well understood and accepted in a theoretical capacity, the particular changes that lead to the functional diversification of gene duplicates are less well understood and documented. Additionally, little work has been done to understand how functions are gained or lost, which leads to the diversification of orthologous genes. The Sir2 family of NAD+-dependent deacetylases is an excellent gene family to study questions of duplication and diversification as it is ubiquitous throughout all kingdoms of life, and it has expanded through a number of gene duplications so that while most bacteria have a single sirtuin/species, mammals have seven sirtuins/species. Sirtuins also have a wide array of biological functions and targets, but some of these functions are conserved in eukaryotes.</p><p>In this study, Sir2 is used to investigate the principles behind gene duplication and functional diversification in a molecular context. Sir2 function is studied in multiple species of budding yeast, the model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Kluyveromyces lactis, and Candida lusitaniae using a combination of genetic, biochemical, and high-throughput methods. Sir2 and its paralog Hst1 from S. cerevisiae were used with their non-duplicated ortholog Sir2 from K. lactis to examine the type of molecular changes that occur after gene duplication and lead to subfunctionalization. Then Sir2 from the more divergent C. lusitaniae was used to study how functions are gained or lost.</p><p>To study the molecular mechanism of subfunctionalization in the duplicated deacetylases ScSir2 and ScHst1 with the non-duplicated KlSir2 used as a proxy for the ancestral state, we hypothesized that the basis for subfunctionalization in this case was in the interaction domains. ScSir2 and ScHst1 act in distinct complexes that target them to the genomic loci they regulate. KlSir2 interacts with the same complexes as both ScSir2 and ScHst1. Therefore, we first identified the minimal regions of ScSir2 and ScHst1 necessary for each to interact with its respective complex. Then we identified mutations in those interaction domains that eliminated those interactions. Those mutations were then tested in KlSir2 for their impact on its interactions with the same complexes. We found that the interaction domains in ScSir2 and ScHst1 were conserved in KlSir2, demonstrating that Sir2 and Hst1 subfunctionalized by acquiring complementary inactivating mutations in these interaction domains.</p><p>To understand better how Sir2 has gained or lost functions, we studied the Sir2 function in C. lusitaniae to serve as an intermediate between the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe Sir2, whose functions have been identified, and K. lactis and S. cerevisiae. Interestingly, ClSir2 was localized to the rDNA, which is also the case in S. pombe, K. lactis, and S. cerevisiae, but not at the telomeres, which is another locus at which Sir2 is found in other yeast. Additionally, ClSir2 was not found to have an impact on gene expression unlike Sir2 and Hst1 in other yeast where they repress transcription.</p> / Dissertation

No description available.