The Royal Society
Browse
rstb20190179_si_001.pdf (2.01 MB)

Supplementary Data from Convergent patterns of evolution of mitochondrial OXPHOS genes in electric fishes

Download (2.01 MB)
journal contribution
posted on 2019-10-21, 16:18 authored by Ahmed A. Elbassiouny, Nathan R. Lovejoy, Belinda S. W. Chang
The ability to generate and detect electric fields has evolved in several groups of fishes as a means of communication, navigation and, occasionally, predation. The energetic burden required can account for up to 20% of electric fishes' daily energy expenditure. Despite this, molecular adaptations that enable electric fishes to meet the metabolic demands of bioelectrogenesis remain unknown. Here, we investigate the molecular evolution of the mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OXPHOS) complexes in the two most diverse clades of weakly electric fishes—South American Gymnotiformes and African Mormyroidea, using codon-based likelihood approaches. Our analyses reveal that although mitochondrial OXPHOS genes are generally subject to strong purifying selection, this constraint is significantly reduced in electric compared to non-electric fishes, particularly for complexes IV and V. Moreover, analyses of concatenated mitochondrial genes show strong evidence for positive selection in complex I genes on the two branches associated with the independent evolutionary origins of electrogenesis. These results suggest that adaptive evolution of proton translocation in the OXPHOS cellular machinery may be associated with the evolution of bioelectrogenesis. Overall, we find striking evidence for remarkably similar effects of electrogenesis on the molecular evolution of mitochondrial OXPHOS genes in two independently derived clades of electrogenic fishes.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Linking the mitochondrial genotype to phenotype: a complex endeavour’.

History

Usage metrics

    Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

    Licence

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC