Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Elife. 2019 Sep 5;8:e48548. doi: 10.7554/eLife.48548.
Theory predicts that sexual reproduction can either facilitate or restrain transposable element (TE) accumulation by providing TEs with a means of spreading to all individuals in a population, versus facilitating TE load reduction via purifying selection. By quantifying genomic TE loads over time in experimental sexual and asexual populations, we provide direct evidence that TE loads decrease rapidly under asexual reproduction. We show, using simulations, that this reduction may occur via evolution of TE activity, most likely via increased excision rates. Thus, sex is a major driver of genomic TE loads and at the root of the success of TEs.
理论预测，有性繁殖可以通过为转座因子（TE）提供一种传播到种群中所有个体的手段，促进或抑制 TE 的积累，而通过净化选择来促进 TE 负荷的减少。通过在实验性有性和无性种群中随时间定量基因组 TE 负荷，我们提供了直接证据，证明在无性繁殖下 TE 负荷迅速下降。我们使用模拟表明，这种减少可能是通过 TE 活性的进化，很可能是通过增加切除率来实现的。因此，性是基因组 TE 负荷的主要驱动因素，也是 TE 成功的根源。
