MBE Advance Access originally published online on August 3, 2005
Molecular Biology and Evolution 2005 22(11):2297-2303; doi:10.1093/molbev/msi227
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Published by Oxford University Press 2005.
Research Article |
Evidence for Genetic Drift in the Diversification of a Geographically Isolated Population of the Hyperthermophilic Archaeon Pyrococcus


* Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics, University of Maryland; and
Center of Marine Biotechnology, University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute
E-mail: diruggie{at}umd.edu.
| Abstract |
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Genetic drift is a mechanism of population divergence that is important in the evolution of plants and animals but is thought to be rare in free-living microorganisms because of their typically large population sizes and unrestricted means of dispersal. We used both phylogenetic and insertion sequence (IS) element analyses in hyperthermophilic archaea of the genus Pyrococcus to test the hypothesis that genetic drift played an important role in the diversification of these microorganisms. Multilocus sequence typing of a collection of 36 isolates of Pyrococcus, from different hydrothermal systems in the Pacific Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, revealed that Pyrococcus populations from different geographic locations are genetically differentiated. Analysis of IS elements in these isolates exposed their presence in all individuals of only one geographically isolated lineage, that of Vulcano Island in the Mediterranean Sea. Detailed sequence analysis of six selected IS elements in the Vulcano population showed that these elements cause deleterious genomic alterations, including inactivation of gene function. The high frequency of IS elements in the sampled population together with their observed harmful effects in the genome of Pyrococcus provide molecular evidence that the Vulcano Island population of Pyrococcus is geographically isolated and that those genetic mobile elements have been brought up to high frequency by genetic drift. Thus, genetic drift resulting from physical isolation should be considered as a factor influencing differentiation in prokaryotes.
Key Words: genetic drift Pyrococcus transposons archaea phylogeny evolution
| Introduction |
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In sexually reproducing species, geographic isolation can generate a barrier to gene flow that can result in genetic drift and/or local adaptation and differentiation (Futuyma 1998
Insertion sequence (IS) elements constitute such molecular markers. IS elements are short segments of DNA, typically 12 kb in length, with the ability to move within and between genomes, without a need for DNA homology (Galas and Chandler 1989
). Although some elements can persist in the genome because they bring a selective advantage to their host, i. e., antibiotic resistance (Lupski 1987
), most IS elements seem to behave as "selfish genes" or parasites, persisting without major consequences or being deleterious to the host genome. The reduced host fitness is then the result of gene inactivation, adjacent gene deletions, and other chromosomal rearrangements (Doolittle and Sapienza 1980
; Orgel and Crick 1980
; Brookfield 2005
). It is known that the frequency of IS elements per site (any locus where an IS is present in at least one of the genomes of the host population) depends on the rates of transposition, excision, and recombination (Langley, Brookfield, and Kaplan 1983
). Natural selection limits the spread of IS by transposition due to the deleterious fitness effects associated with gene disruption and inactivation, and an equilibrium is reached when the effects of transposition and selection are balanced (B. Charlesworth and D. Charlesworth 1983
). In large populations the number of sites for transpositions is high enough that finding elements linked to a particular site is an unlikely event. In other words, the probability of finding two individuals with the same IS at a particular site is much higher in a small population than in a large population (Slatkin 1985
). Therefore, stochastic processes rather than selection better explain the presence and maintenance at high frequencies of IS elements in natural populations.
Hyperthermophilic archaea of the genus Pyrococcus are found in deep sea hydrothermal vents and shallow marine hot springs and can only grow above 70°C and under anaerobic conditions (Fiala and Stetter 1986
; Lepage et al. 2004
). Their environment displays "island-like" characteristics with high-temperature niches (hot springs) separated by large areas of inhospitable conditions (cold oceans). The genus comprises three species Pyrococcus furiosus, Pyrococcus abyssi, and Pyrococcus horikoshii for which complete genome sequences were obtained (Kawarabayasi et al. 1998
; Robb et al. 2001
; Cohen et al. 2003
). Full-length IS elements are found in the genome P. furiosus but are absent from that of P. abyssi and P. horikoshii (DiRuggiero et al. 2000
; Lecompte et al. 2001
). P. furiosus IS elements belong to a novel family of transposable elements and can be classified into three major groups based on nucleotide identity (83%84%): IS-pfu1 (11 copies), IS-pfu2 (8 copies), and IS-pfu3 (4 copies) (Kanoksilapatham et al. 2004
). Each IS element contains a transposase gene (
702 bp), a short spacer (5457 bp), and two flanking 16-bp inverted repeats (fig. 3).
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We used both, MLST and IS element analyses, in hyperthermophilic archaea of the genus Pyrococcus to test the hypothesis that genetic drift played an important role in the diversification of these microorganisms.
| Materials and Methods |
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Strain Isolation and Growth Conditions
Water and sediment samples were obtained from mud pools and underwater hot springs in Vulcano Island, Italy, in fall 2002 and 2003. Samples were stored in reduced media and anaerobic conditions until further processing. Enrichment cultures were grown in 5060 ml liquid P. furiosus medium inoculated with 12 ml, as described previously (Lepage et al. 2004
Strain Characterization and Phylogenetic Analysis
Genomic DNA was extracted from 60 ml of liquid cultures using the BIO 101 Genome Kit (Q-BIOgene, Irvine, Calif.) as described by the manufacturer. Specific 16S rDNA primers, Arch0333aF15 (5'-TCCAGGCCCTACGGG-3') and Arch0958R19 (5'-YCCGGCGTTGAMTCCAATT-3') were used to obtain polymerase chain reaction (PCR) products from all the Vulcano isolates. All loci were amplified by PCR in 12.5 µl reactions containing 10 pmoles of primers, 3.0 mM MgCl2, 50 mM KCl, 10 mM Tris, 0.2 mM deoxynucleoside triphosphates, and 1 U of AmpliTaq DNA polymerase (Fermentas, Hanover, Md.). PCR conditions were as follows: 94°C for 2 min and 30 cycles of 94°C for 30 s, 55°C or 60°C for 30 s, and 72°C for 30 s. Sequences were obtained by direct sequencing of PCR products purified using exoSAP (USB, Cleveland, Ohio) and sequenced using Big Dye terminator reactions (Perkin Elmer, Boston, Mass.) and an ABI3100 automated sequencer (Applied BioSystems, Foster City, Calif.). Sequences for 16S rDNA, approximately 700 bp in length, were aligned with those of closely related species of Thermococcales (as listed in the GenBank database [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov]) with the ClustalV program (Higgins, Bleasby, and Fuchs 1992
) from the Sequence Navigator package and used to generate the tree shown in Figure S1 (Supplementary Material online) with the Neighbor-Joining algorithm from PAUP* 4.0b10 (Swofford 1998
). Sequences from the other loci were edited and aligned using the same software. Phylogenetic reconstruction of the evolutionary history of 36 Pyrococcus strains and one Thermococcus strain was performed by simultaneous analysis of the DNA sequences of four loci homologous to P. furiosus valyl-tRNA synthetase (PF0290), putative DNA helicase (PF0572), hypothetical protein PF1459, and
-glucan phosphorylase (PF1536) + hypothetical protein PF1537 (IIV; table 1). Three additional loci prephenate dehydratase (PF0291) + deoxyhypusine synthase (PF0292), 3-hydroxyisobutyrate dehydrogenase (PF0716), and a putative protease PF1905 (IVI; table 1) were used to expand on the phylogenetic relationship among the 19 Vulcano isolates and P. furiosus (IVII; table 1). These loci were selected to represent regions of high-nucleotide variation among the three reference strains and include protein-encoding genes and intergenic regions. Primers used to amplify these loci are reported in Table S1 (Supplementary Material online). Phylogenetic analyses were performed using the maximum likelihood analysis from PAUP* 4.0b10 (Swofford 1998
). In the likelihood analysis, the general time reversible model with invariant site and gamma correction was used (GTR + I +
) with four rate categories. Likelihood and parsimony bootstrap proportions were calculated from 1,000 iterations.
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IS Analysis
Six primer pairs were designed to amplify specific IS elements homologous to P. furious PF0069, PF0242, PF0946, PF0536, PF1736, and PF0898, in all Vulcano strains (Table S1, Supplementary Material online). The PCR and sequencing conditions used were similar to those described above. Sequences were aligned using the ClustalV program in the Sequence Navigator package (Applied BioSystems).
Southern Blot Analysis
Genomic DNA was isolated as described above. Restriction digest with HindIII and Southern hybridizations were performed according to the procedure of Sambrook, Fritsch, and Maniatis (1989)
. The probe, 210 bp in length containing P. furiosus transposase sequence, was generated by PCR and labeled using the DIG probe synthesis kit (Roche Diagnostics Inc., Indianapolis, Ind.) as described by the manufacturer.
| Results and Discussion |
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Phylogenetic Analysis
We evaluated the existence of geographic genetic differentiation by MLST of 36 Pyrococcus strains from three geographical locations (fig. 1) comprising 3 reference strains fully sequenced, P. furiosus DSM3638 (Fiala and Stetter 1986
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IS Analysis
The relationship between geographical isolation and genetic divergence in the Pyrococcus populations was further supported by our observation that P. furiosuslike IS elements were present in all the isolates from Vulcano Island (Mediterranean Sea) and completely absent from that of the Pacific Ocean (Fig. S2, Supplementary Material online). We used standard Southern blot hybridization and a 210-bp probe of highly conserved sequences for P. furiosus ISs (DiRuggiero et al. 2000
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The frequency of IS elements per site in a population is the result of their rate of proliferation through transposition and their removal by natural selection, given the deleterious fitness effects caused by their presence (B. Charlesworth and D. Charlesworth 1983
| Conclusion |
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The presence of IS elements in only one population of Pyrococcus, together with MLST, revealed genetic divergence between populations occupying different geographic locations. Physical barriers to their dispersal might be the result of severe constraints on their growth conditions together with the discontinuous nature of their environment. The observed high frequency of IS elements and evidence of their deleterious effects strongly suggest that genetic drift occurred in the Vulcano Island population and that it is an important mechanism of genetic divergence in Pyrococcus. Thus, these observations and the island-like nature of their environment make hyperthermophiles good candidates to be the microbial counterpart of the giant tortoise of the Galapagos (Fenchel 2003
| Supplementary Material |
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Table S1 and Figures S1 and S2 are available at Molecular Biology and Evolution online (http://www.mbe.oxfordjournals.org/).
| Acknowledgements |
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We thank E. Marguet, P. Forterre, J. Tuttle, and J. Baross for generously providing Pyrococcus strains from the Pacific Ocean and I. Zivanovic for providing sequences from Thermococcus radiotolerans. Nucleotide sequences have been deposited in GenBank (accession numbers AY904068AY904329). This work was supported by a Department of Energy grant DE-FG02-01ER63133, an Oak Ridge Associated Universities Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award, and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute undergraduate student fellowship to S.G.
| Footnotes |
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Martin Embley, Associate Editor
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