Department of Applied Science, William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, United States of America.
Department of Biology, William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2022 Jul 14;17(7):e0270839. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0270839. eCollection 2022.
In an empirical analysis of transposable element (TE) abundance within natural populations of Mimulus guttatus and Drosophila melanogaster, we found a surprisingly high variance of TE count (e.g., variance-to-mean ratio on the order of 10 to 300). To obtain insight regarding the evolutionary genetic mechanisms that underlie the overdispersed population distributions of TE abundance, we developed a mathematical model of TE population genetics that includes the dynamics of element proliferation and purifying selection on TE load. The modeling approach begins with a master equation for a birth-death process and extends the predictions of the classical theory of TE dynamics in several ways. In particular, moment-based analyses of population distributions of TE load reveal that overdispersion is likely to arise via copy-and-paste proliferation dynamics, especially when the elementary processes of proliferation and excision are approximately balanced. Parameter studies and analytic work confirm this result and further suggest that overdispersed population distributions of TE abundance are probably not a consequence of purifying selection on total element load.
在对金雀花和黑腹果蝇自然种群中转座元件 (TE) 丰度的实证分析中,我们发现 TE 计数的方差出奇地高(例如,方差与均值比在 10 到 300 之间)。为了深入了解导致 TE 丰度过度分散的种群分布的进化遗传机制,我们开发了一个 TE 种群遗传学的数学模型,其中包括元素增殖和 TE 负荷净化选择的动态。该建模方法从一个出生-死亡过程的主方程开始,并以几种方式扩展了经典 TE 动力学理论的预测。特别是,基于矩的 TE 负荷种群分布分析表明,过度分散很可能是通过复制和粘贴增殖动态产生的,尤其是当增殖和切除的基本过程大致平衡时。参数研究和分析工作证实了这一结果,并进一步表明,TE 丰度的过度分散种群分布可能不是对总元素负荷的净化选择的结果。