Publication Date:
2024-02-07
Description:
Highlights:
Recent genomic data reveal that somatic genetic variation (SoGV) is widespread, but evolutionary consequences of this within-organism level of genetic diversity are largely ignored.
In modular plant, animal, and fungal species featuring somatic asexual (=clonal) reproduction and long life spans, the segregation of somatic variation into independent modules (ramets) may create phenotypic diversity subject to selection.
Recent genomic data suggest that SoGV can be transferred into gametes in species with late-sequestered, transient germlines (all plants and fungi, some basal animals).
Somatic evolution is nested within sexual reproduction and needs to be better integrated into population genetic theory for a large number of species encompassing plants, fungi, and basal animals.
Somatic genetic variation (SoGV) may play a consequential yet underappreciated role in long-lived, modular species among plants, animals, and fungi. Recent genomic data identified two levels of genetic heterogeneity, between cell lines and between modules, that are subject to multilevel selection. Because SoGV can transfer into gametes when germlines are sequestered late in ontogeny (plants, algae, and fungi and some basal animals), sexual and asexual processes provide interdependent routes of mutational input and impact the accumulation of genetic load and molecular evolution rates of the integrated asexual/sexual life cycle. Avenues for future research include possible fitness effects of SoGV, the identification and implications of multilevel selection, and modeling of asexual selective sweeps using approaches from tumor evolution
Type:
Article
,
PeerReviewed
,
info:eu-repo/semantics/article
Format:
text
Format:
text
Permalink
