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Haploidy or diploidy: which is better?

Although the evolutionary advantages of sexual reproduction have been extensively discussed, much less attention has been paid to haploid and diploid phases of the sexual life cycle. The relative lengths of these phases differ greatly in various taxa, including as extremes those with one or the other phase reduced to a single cell. Here we consider the efficiency of elimination of deleterious mutations as an evolutionary force and compare the mutation loads under haploid and diploid selection, Ln and L2n. With truncation-like selection, partial dominance, and heterozygous effect of a mutation less than about 1/4 its hemizygous effect, L2n less than Ln; otherwise L2n greater than Ln. The difference becomes important when the genomic deleterious mutation rate exceeds about 1 per genome. This suggests that the mutation rate, degree of dominance and mode of selection can be important in life-cycle evolution.

Biological Evolution↗

Electrophoretic shift mutants in Chinese hamster ovary cells: evidence for genetic diploidy.

Electrophoretic shift mutants induced in Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells indicate that these cells not extensively functionally hemizygotic. Therefore, effective haploidy is unsatisfactory as a general theory to explain the frequency of recessive mutants in this cell line. CHO cells were screened for electrophoretic shift variants of enzymes coded by approximately 40 genetic loci. Clones isolated after exposure to ultraviolet radiation were examined by starch gel and Cellogel electrophoresis. Shift variants were recovered for enzymes representing 11 different loci. Variant clones were subcloned to demonstrate the heritability of the variations Mutants at nine loci produced multiple-banded patterns consistent with the patterns expected of genes at loci represented twice (diploid). Chromosome localization of these diploid loci in other mammalian species where they have been mapped, suggests that they represent a random sample of CHO genes. Chromosome analysis of mutant subclones indicated that the variation did not take place in tetraploid cells. The data indicate that the quasi-diploid CHO cells appear only as functionally hemizygous as would be expected of a slightly hypodiploid cell line derived from an organism in which the haploid number is 11.

Aneuploidy↗

Evidence for diploidy in metacyclic forms of African trypanosomes.

The DNA contents of bloodstream form trypanosomes (life cycle stages circulating in the blood of the vertebrate host) of four African Trypanosoma species and of metacyclic forms (the life cycle stage that is injected into the vertebrate by the tsetse fly during its bite) of the same four species were measured by cytofluorometry of individual cells or nuclei. The results showed unambiguously that the metacyclic forms cannot be considered to be products of meiosis containing only half of the DNA of bloodstream forms, in contrast to what was previously reported for Trypanosoma brucei [Zampetti-Bosseler, F., Schweizer, J., Pays, E., Jenni, L. & Steinert, M. (1986) Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 83, 6063-6064] during an attempt to localize the gametes in the life cycle after experimental evidence of sexual gene exchange in this parasite was reported.

Animals↗

Increase in the rate of diploidy with maternal age in unfertilized in-vitro fertilization oocytes.

Human oocytes which failed to fertilize in vitro were fixed for cytogenetic analysis. Metaphase II chromosomes were identified in 286 oocytes, of which 233 were suitable for cytogenetic analysis. In all, 181 oocytes had a normal haploid karyotype (77.7%), while the remaining 52 were abnormal (28 aneuploid, 14 diploid and 10 tetraploid). The rate of aneuploidy did not increase with maternal age. However, the proportion of diploid oocytes increased significantly with advancing maternal age (P < 0.01), being particularly obvious in women aged > 35 years.

Adult↗

Drosophila myb is required for the G2/M transition and maintenance of diploidy.

The myb proto-oncogenes are thought to have a role in the cell division cycle. We have examined this possibility by genetic analysis in Drosophila melanogaster, which possesses a single myb gene. We have described previously two temperature-sensitive, recessive lethal mutants in Drosophila myb (Dm myb). The phenotypes of these mutants revealed a requirement for myb in diverse cellular lineages throughout the course of Drosophila development. We now report a cellular explanation for these findings by showing that Dm myb is required for both mitosis and prevention of endoreduplication in wing cells. Myb apparently acts at or near the time of the G2/M transition. The two mutant alleles of Dm myb produce the same cellular phenotype, although the responsible mutations are located in different functional domains of the gene product. The mutant phenotype can be partially suppressed by ectopic expression of either cdc2 or string, two genes that are known to promote the transition from G2 to M. We conclude that Dm myb is required for completion of cell division and may serve two independent functions: promotion of mitosis, on the one hand, and prevention of endoreduplication when cells are arrested in G2, on the other.

Amino Acid Sequence↗

The chinese hamster Don cell line differs from normal diploidy by one chromosome band.

G-banded and C-banded prometaphase and metaphase karyotypes of the Chinese hamster Don cell line from three different laboratories were compared. All the cell lines were pseudodiploid. Each consisted of two distinct cell populations designated S1 and S2. The chromosome complements of each of these populations differed from the diploid by only one additional chromosome band on a subterminal 1p in S1 and on a median 1q in S2. The sites of these extra bands were neither constricted nor heterochromatic. All other different karyotypes, including those from seven distinct subpopulations, had basic patterns of chromosome complements that were best represented by S1 or S2, respectively the major or minor cell type of the cell line. Moreover, nearly 80% of the metaphases analyzed had a modal chromosome number of 22, and about 60% had the same chromosome composition of a cell type or subtype. Our data also suggest that Don cells were probably pseudodiploid by 1964 or before.

Animals↗

Analysis of the primary sex ratio, sex chromosome aneuploidy and diploidy in human sperm using dual-colour fluorescence in situ hybridisation.

In situ hybridisation technology provides a new tool for chromosome analysis of human spermatozoa. We have used dual-colour fluorescence in situ with probes specific for the X and Y chromosomes and chromosomes 1 and 12 to (a) identify the primary male gametic sex chromosome ratio; (b) assess the number of numerical sex chromosome abnormalities, and (c) quantify the incidence of diploid sperm. We have examined over 60,000 sperm from three normal males and found the primary sex ratio to be indistinguishable from unity. The frequency of hyperhaploid sperm was 0.8, 1.03 and 2.27 per thousand for XX, YY and XY respectively, whilst 1.67 per thousand sperm were diploid. A comparison of our results with estimates of sex chromosome aneuploidy in human populations suggests that sperm carrying two sex chromosomes may be at a selective disadvantage.

Adult↗

A Cdc2 dependent checkpoint maintains diploidy in Drosophila.

DNA replication in G2 does not normally occur due to the checkpoint control. To elucidate its mechanism, the functions of the escargot and Dmcdc2 genes of Drosophila were studied. When escargot function was eliminated, diploid imaginal cells that were arrested in G2 lost Cyclin A, a regulatory subunit of G2/M cdk, and entered an endocycle. escargot genetically interacted with Dmcdc2 which encodes a catalytic subunit of G2/M cdk. The mutant phenotypes of Dmcdc2 itself was similar to those of escargot: many diploid cells in imaginal discs, salivary glands and the central nervous system entered an endocycle and sometimes formed polytene chromosomes. Since mitotically quiescent abdominal histoblasts still required Dmcdc2 to remain diploid, the inhibitory activity of G2/M cdk on DNA replication appeared to be separable from its activity as the mitosis promoting factor. These results suggest that in G2, escargot is required to maintain a high level of G2/M cdk that actively inhibits the entry into S phase.

Animals↗

Genomic convergence toward diploidy in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

Genome size, a fundamental aspect of any organism, is subject to a variety of mutational and selection pressures. We investigated genome size evolution in haploid, diploid, and tetraploid initially isogenic lines of the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Over the course of approximately 1,800 generations of mitotic division, we observed convergence toward diploid DNA content in all replicate lines. This convergence was observed in both unstressful and stressful environments, although the rate of convergence was dependent on initial ploidy and evolutionary environment. Comparative genomic hybridization with microarrays revealed nearly euploid DNA content by the end of the experiment. As the vegetative life cycle of S. cerevisiae is predominantly diploid, this experiment provides evidence that genome size evolution is constrained, with selection favouring the genomic content typical of the yeast's evolutionary past.

Chromosomes, Fungal↗

Haploidy, diploidy and evolution of antifungal drug resistance in Saccharomyces cerevisiae.

We tested the hypothesis that the time course of the evolution of antifungal drug resistance depends on the ploidy of the fungus. The experiments were designed to measure the initial response to the selection imposed by the antifungal drug fluconazole up to and including the fixation of the first resistance mutation in populations of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Under conditions of low drug concentration, mutations in the genes PDR1 and PDR3, which regulate the ABC transporters implicated in resistance to fluconazole, are favored. In this environment, diploid populations of defined size consistently became fixed for a resistance mutation sooner than haploid populations. Experiments manipulating population sizes showed that this advantage of diploids was due to increased mutation availability relative to that of haploids; in effect, diploids have twice the number of mutational targets as haploids and hence have a reduced waiting time for mutations to occur. Under conditions of high drug concentration, recessive mutations in ERG3, which result in resistance through altered sterol synthesis, are favored. In this environment, haploids consistently achieved resistance much sooner than diploids. When 29 haploid and 29 diploid populations were evolved for 100 generations in low drug concentration, the mutations fixed in diploid populations were all dominant, while the mutations fixed in haploid populations were either recessive (16 populations) or dominant (13 populations). Further, the spectrum of the 53 nonsynonymous mutations identified at the sequence level was different between haploids and diploids. These results fit existing theory on the relative abilities of haploids and diploids to adapt and suggest that the ploidy of the fungal pathogen has a strong impact on the evolution of fluconazole resistance.

Antifungal Agents↗