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Adaptive Duplication in Response to Variable Selection Pressures
Gene duplication is a valuable mechanism for generating genomic novelty, and for that reason may be especially beneficial in, for example, gene families involved in pathogen response or distinguishing among hundreds or thousands of volatile organic compounds.
In collaboration with Lucie Etienne's lab, we recently found that some Myotis bats have a unique duplication of protein kinase R, a protein that inhibits viral replication. The two copies have functional differences in their effectiveness against pox viruses, potentially contributing to bats' unique relationship with viruses (Jacquet et al. 2022). In collaboration with Sharlene Santana's lab, we investigated the relationship between the behavior and specialization of three species of Carollia bats in response to volatile organic compounds produced by ripe and unripe Piper fruit. Piper plants vary in the type and concentration of volatile organic compounds they produce, and short-tailed fruit bats (Carrolia) have within-species copy number variation of olfactory receptor genes. We found evidence of adaptive evolution of Piper in response to Carrolia dietary preferences (Leiser-Miller et al. 2020, Santana et al. 2021) |
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