Suchergebnisse

Autosomal inborn errors of type I IFN immunity and autoantibodies against these cytokines underlie at least 10% of critical COVID-19 pneumonia cases. We report very rare, biochemically deleterious X-linked TLR7 variants in 16 unrelated male individuals aged 7 to 71 years (mean: 36.7 years) from a cohort of 1,202 male patients aged 0.5 to 99 years (mean: 52.9 years) with unexplained critical COVID-19 pneumonia. None of the 331 asymptomatically or mildly infected male individuals aged 1.3 to 102 years (mean: 38.7 years) tested carry such TLR7 variants (p = 3.5 × 10-5). The phenotypes of five hemizygous relatives of index cases infected with SARS-CoV-2 include asymptomatic or mild infection (n=2, 5 and 38 years), or moderate (n=1, 5 years), severe (n=1, 27 years), or critical (n=1, 29 years) pneumonia. Two boys (aged 7 and 12 years) from a cohort of 262 male patients with severe COVID-19 pneumonia (mean: 51.0 years) are hemizygous for a deleterious TLR7 variant. The cumulative allele frequency for deleterious TLR7 variants in the male general population is < 6.5x10-4 We also show that blood B cell lines and myeloid cell subsets from the patients do not respond to TLR7 stimulation, a phenotype rescued by wild-type TLR7 The patients' blood plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) produce low levels of type I IFNs in response to SARS-CoV-2. Overall, X-linked recessive TLR7 deficiency is a highly penetrant genetic etiology of critical COVID-19 pneumonia, in about 1.8% of male patients below the age of 60 years. Human TLR7 and pDCs are essential for protective type I IFN immunity against SARS-CoV-2 in the respiratory tract. ; Funding: The Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases is supported by the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Rockefeller University; the St. Giles Foundation; the NIH (R01AI088364), the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS); NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program (UL1TR001866); a Fast Grant from Emergent Ventures; Mercatus Center at the George Mason University; the Yale Center for Mendelian Genomics and the GSP Coordinating Center funded by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) (UM1HG006504 and U24HG008956); the Meyer Foundation; the JPB Foundation; the French National Research Agency (ANR) under the "Investments for the Future" program (ANR-10-IAHU-01) and the Integrative Biology of Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory of Excellence (ANR-10-LABX-62-IBEID); the French Foundation for Medical Research (FRM) (EQU201903007798); the FRM and ANR GENCOVID project, the ANRS-COV05, ANR GENVIR (ANR-20-CE93-003), and ANR AABIFNCOV (ANR-20-CO11-0001) projects; the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under grant agreement no. 824110 (EASI-genomics). The French COVID Cohort study group was sponsored by INSERM and supported by the REACTing consortium and by a grant from the French Ministry of Health (PHRC 20-0424). The Cov-Contact Cohort was supported by the REACTing consortium, the French Ministry of Health, and the European Commission (RECOVER WP 6). The Neurometabolic Diseases Laboratory received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program (EasiGenomics grant no. 824110 COVID-19/PID12342). A.P., R.P.d.D., C.R.-G., and C.F. were funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (COV20_01333 and COV20_01334), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RTC-2017-6471-1; AEI/FEDER, UE), Fundación DISA (OA18/017), and Cabildo Insular de Tenerife (CGIEU0000219140 and "Apuestas científicas del ITER para colaborar en la lucha contra la COVID-19"). The laboratories of G.N. and A.N. were supported by a grant awarded to Regione Lazio (PROGETTI DI GRUPPI DI RICERCA 2020) no. A0375-2020-36663, GecoBiomark. A. Amara's laboratory was supported by ANR under the "Investments for the Future" program (ANR-10-IAHU-01), the Integrative Biology of Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory of Excellence (ANR-10-LABX-62-IBEID), the FRM (EQU202003010193), ANR (ANR-20-COVI-000 project IDISCOVR and ANR-20-CO11-0004 project FISHBP), and the University of Paris (Plan de Soutien Covid-19: RACPL20FIR01-COVID-SOUL). This work was supported, in part, by the Division of Intramural Research, NIAID, NIH (grants 1ZIAAI001265 to H.C.S. and ZIA AI001270 to L.D.N.). The G.C. laboratory was supported by the Italian Ministry of Health (grant COVID-2020-12371617) and the intramural COVID Host Genetics program. The J.L.F. laboratory was supported, in part, by the Coopération Scientifique France-Colciencias (ECOS-Nord/COLCIENCIAS/MEN/ICETEX; 806-2018) and Colciencias contract 713-2016 (no. 111574455633). The V.S. laboratory was supported by ANR DENDRISEPSIS (ANR-17-CE15-0003) and ANR APCOD (ANR-17-CE15-0003-01), a Fast Grant from the Mercatus Center, FRM, University of Paris PLAN D'URGENCE COVID19. The N.M. laboratory was supported by Sidra Medicine (SDR400048) and the Qatar National Research Fund (grant No. NPRP9-251-3-045)

Cell differentiation is accompanied by epigenetic changes leading to precise lineage definition and cell identity. Here we present a comprehensive resource of epigenomic data of human T cell precursors along with an integrative analysis of other hematopoietic populations. Although T cell commitment is accompanied by large scale epigenetic changes, we observed that the majority of distal regulatory elements are constitutively unmethylated throughout T cell differentiation, irrespective of their activation status. Among these, the TCRA gene enhancer (Eα) is in an open and unmethylated chromatin structure well before activation. Integrative analyses revealed that the HOXA5-9 transcription factors repress the Eα enhancer at early stages of T cell differentiation, while their decommission is required for TCRA locus activation and enforced αβ T lineage differentiation. Remarkably, the HOXA-mediated repression of Eα is paralleled by the ectopic expression of homeodomain-related oncogenes in T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. These results highlight an analogous enhancer repression mechanism at play in normal and cancer conditions, but imposing distinct developmental constraints. ; Work in the laboratory of S. Spicuglia was supported by recurrent funding from Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale and Aix-Marseille University and by specific grants from the European Union's FP7 Program (agreement 282510-BLUEPRINT), the Foundation for Cancer Research, Association pour la Recherche sur le Cancer (ARC PJA 20151203149), A*MIDEX (ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02), Plan Cancer 2015 (C15076AS), PlBio-INCA, and Equipe Labelisée Ligue contre le Cancer.

Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) is the leading technique for characterizing the transcriptomes of individual cells in a sample. The latest protocols are scalable to thousands of cells and are being used to compile cell atlases of tissues, organs and organisms. However, the protocols differ substantially with respect to their RNA capture efficiency, bias, scale and costs, and their relative advantages for different applications are unclear. In the present study, we generated benchmark datasets to systematically evaluate protocols in terms of their power to comprehensively describe cell types and states. We performed a multicenter study comparing 13 commonly used scRNA-seq and single-nucleus RNA-seq protocols applied to a heterogeneous reference sample resource. Comparative analysis revealed marked differences in protocol performance. The protocols differed in library complexity and their ability to detect cell-type markers, impacting their predictive value and suitability for integration into reference cell atlases. These results provide guidance both for individual researchers and for consortium projects such as the Human Cell Atlas. ; This project has been made possible in part by grant no. 2018-182827 from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation. H.H. is a Miguel Servet (CP14/00229) researcher funded by the Spanish Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). C.M. is supported by an AECC postdoctoral fellowship. This work has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement no. H2020-MSCA-ITN-2015-675752 (Singek), and the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (SAF2017-89109-P; AEI/FEDER, UE). S. was supported by the German Research Foundation's (DFG's) (GR4980) Behrens-Weise-Foundation. C.Z. was supported by the European Molecular Biology Organization through the long-term fellowship ALTF 673-2017. The snRNA-seq data were generated with support from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (grant no. U24AI118672), I.N. was supported by JST CREST (grant no. JPMJCR16G3) , Japan. A.J., L.E.W., J.W.B. and W.E. were supported by funding from the DFG (EN 1093/2-1 and SFB1243 TP A14). This publication is part of a project (BCLLATLAS) that received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement no. 810287). Core funding was from the ISCIII and the Generalitat de Catalunya

Bringing together cancer genomes from different projects increases power and allows the investigation of pan-cancer, molecular mechanisms. However, working with whole genomes sequenced over several years in different sequencing centres requires a framework to compare the quality of these sequences. We used the Pan-Cancer Analysis of Whole Genomes cohort as a test case to construct such a framework. This cohort contains whole cancer genomes of 2832 donors from 18 sequencing centres. We developed a non-redundant set of five quality control (QC) measurements to establish a star rating system. These QC measures reflect known differences in sequencing protocol and provide a guide to downstream analyses and allow for exclusion of samples of poor quality. We have found that this is an effective framework of quality measures. The implementation of the framework is available at: https://dockstore.org/containers/quay.io/jwerner_dkfz/pancanqc:1.2.2. ; J.P.W., M.D.S., S.B., M.G., J.T. and I.G.G. acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the Instituto de Salud Carlos III and the 2014–2020 Smart Growth Operating Program, to the EMBL partnership and co-financing with the European Regional Development Fund (MINECO/FEDER, BIO2015-71792-P). We also acknowledge the support of the Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa, and the Generalitat de Catalunya through the Departament de Salut, Departament d'Empresa i Coneixement and the CERCA Programme. We also acknowledge the support through the European Union's Horizon 2020-funded project EASI-Genomics under grant agreement no 824110. The funding bodies did not have any influence on the design of the study and collection, analysis, and interpretation of data and in writing the paper.

Single-cell genomics (SCG) appeared as a powerful technique to get genomic information from uncultured organisms. However, SCG techniques suffer from biases at the whole genome amplification step that can lead to extremely variable numbers of genome recovery (5-100%). Thus, it is unclear how useful can SCG be to address evolutionary questions on uncultured microbial eukaryotes. To provide some insights into this, we here analysed 3 single-cell amplified genomes (SAGs) of the choanoflagellate Monosiga brevicollis, whose genome is known. Our results show that each SAG has a different, independent bias, yielding different levels of genome recovery for each cell (6-36%). Genes often appear fragmented and are split into more genes during annotation. Thus, analyses of gene gain and losses, gene architectures, synteny and other genomic features can not be addressed with a single SAG. However, the recovery of phylogenetically-informative protein domains can be up to 55%. This means SAG data can be used to perform accurate phylogenomic analyses. Finally, we also confirm that the co-assembly of several SAGs improves the general genomic recovery. Overall, our data show that, besides important current limitations, SAGs can still provide interesting and novel insights from poorly-known, uncultured organisms. ; We acknowledge support by ICREA, a European Research Council Consolidator (ERC-2012-Co-616960) grant, and grant (BFU2014-57779-P) from Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) with FEDER funds. We also acknowledge financial support from Secretaria d'Universitats i Recerca del Departament d'Economia i Coneixement de la Generalitat de Catalunya (Project 2014 SGR 619). The authors want to acknowledge Jean-Francois Mangot for the support on the tetranucleotide frequency calculations and Ramon Massana for helpful discussions on the manuscript. We also thank Javier del Campo for some initial ideas, further discussions, and help in the experimental design. Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. We also thank the commitment of the following people and sponsors: CNRS (in particular Groupement de Recherche GDR3280), European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), Genoscope/CEAthe French Government 'Investissements d'Avenir' programmes OCEANOMICS (ANR-11-BTBR-0008) and FRANCE GENOMIQUE (ANR-10-INBS-09-08), Agence Nationale de la Recherche, and European Union FP7 (MicroB3/No.287589), We also thank the support and commitment of Agnès B. and Etienne Bourgois, the Veolia Environment Foundation, Region Bretagne, Lorient Agglomeration, World Courier, Illumina, the Eléctricité de France (EDF) Foundation, Fondation pour la recherche sur la biodiversité (FRB), the Foundation Prince Albert II de Monaco, the Tara Foundation, its schooner and teams. We thank MERCATOR-CORIOLIS and ACRI-ST for providing daily satellite data during the expedition. We are also grateful to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs for supporting the expedition and to the countries who graciously granted sampling permissions. Tara Oceans would not exist without continuous support from 23 institutes (http://oceans.taraexpeditions.org/en/m/science/labs-involved/).

The evolution of winged insects revolutionized terrestrial ecosystems and led to the largest animal radiation on Earth. However, we still have an incomplete picture of the genomic changes that underlay this diversification. Mayflies, as one of the sister groups of all other winged insects, are key to understanding this radiation. Here, we describe the genome of the mayfly Cloeon dipterum and its gene expression throughout its aquatic and aerial life cycle and specific organs. We discover an expansion of odorant-binding-protein genes, some expressed specifically in breathing gills of aquatic nymphs, suggesting a novel sensory role for this organ. In contrast, flying adults use an enlarged opsin set in a sexually dimorphic manner, with some expressed only in males. Finally, we identify a set of wing-associated genes deeply conserved in the pterygote insects and find transcriptomic similarities between gills and wings, suggesting a common genetic program. Globally, this comprehensive genomic and transcriptomic study uncovers the genetic basis of key evolutionary adaptations in mayflies and winged insects. ; This project was mainly funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant Agreement 657732 to I.A., Grant BFU2015-66040-P to F.Ca., institutional Grant MDM-2016-0687 (MINECO, Spain). Additional funding was provided by the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (ERC-StG-LS2-637591 to M.I.), the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia (BFU2017-89201-P to M.I., RYC-2016-20089 and PGC2018-099392-A-I00 to I.M.)

In mouse and human meiosis, DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs) initiate homologous recombination and occur at specific sites called hotspots. The localization of these sites is determined by the sequence-specific DNA binding domain of the PRDM9 histone methyl transferase. Here, we performed an extensive analysis of PRDM9 binding in mouse spermatocytes. Unexpectedly, we identified a noncanonical recruitment of PRDM9 to sites that lack recombination activity and the PRDM9 binding consensus motif. These sites include gene promoters, where PRDM9 is recruited in a DSB-dependent manner. Another subset reveals DSB-independent interactions between PRDM9 and genomic sites, such as the binding sites for the insulator protein CTCF. We propose that these DSB-independent sites result from interactions between hotspot-bound PRDM9 and genomic sequences located on the chromosome axis. ; The work leading to the H3K4me3 results received funding from the European Union Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement no. 262055. This work was supported by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-15-CE12-0010-01/DaSiRe). B.d.M. was funded by grants from the Centre National pour la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the European Research Council Executive Agency under the European Community's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013 grant agreement no. [322788]).

Fungal infections represent an increasingly relevant clinical problem, primarily because of the increased survival of severely immune-compromised patients. Despite the availability of active and selective drugs and of well-established prophylaxis, classical antifungals are often ineffective as resistance is frequently observed. The quest for anti-fungal drugs with novel mechanisms of action is thus important. Here we show that a new compound, 089, acts by arresting fungal cells in the G2 phase of the cell cycle through targeting of SWE1, a mechanism of action unexploited by current anti-fungal drugs. The cell cycle impairment also induces a modification of fungal cell morphology which makes fungal cells recognizable by immune cells. This new class of molecules holds promise to be a valuable source of novel antifungals, allowing the clearance of pathogenic fungi by both direct killing of the fungus and enhancing the recognition of the pathogen by the host immune system. ; This project was supported by European Union's Seventh Framework Programme [FP7/2007-2013] under grant agreement n° HEALTH-2010-242220 ("SYBARIS") and by EU Framework Programme 7 Collaborative Project [242220]-JPI ENPADASI. I.S. was supported by the "Sybaris" project and by a fellowship from the Wellcome Warwick Quantitative Biomedicine Programme (Institutional Strategic Support Fund: 105627/Z/14/Z). The authors would like to thank Enrica Calura and Gavin Sherlock for support and critical comments on the analyses.

Background: The Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis is an ecologically and economically relevant edible marine bivalve, highly invasive and resilient to biotic and abiotic stressors causing recurrent massive mortalities in other bivalves. Although these traits have been recently linked with the maintenance of a high genetic variation within natural populations, the factors underlying the evolutionary success of this species remain unclear. Results: Here, after the assembly of a 1.28-Gb reference genome and the resequencing of 14 individuals from two independent populations, we reveal a complex pan-genomic architecture in M. galloprovincialis, with a core set of 45,000 genes plus a strikingly high number of dispensable genes (20,000) subject to presence-absence variation, which may be entirely missing in several individuals. We show that dispensable genes are associated with hemizygous genomic regions affected by structural variants, which overall account for nearly 580 Mb of DNA sequence not included in the reference genome assembly. As such, this is the first study to report the widespread occurrence of gene presence-absence variation at a whole-genome scale in the animal kingdom. Conclusions: Dispensable genes usually belong to young and recently expanded gene families enriched in survival functions, which might be the key to explain the resilience and invasiveness of this species. This unique pan-genome architecture is characterized by dispensable genes in accessory genomic regions that exceed by orders of magnitude those observed in other metazoans, including humans, and closely mirror the open pan-genomes found in prokaryotes and in a few non-metazoan eukaryotes. ; This work was conducted with the support of the projects AGL2011-14507-E, AGL2015-65705-R, RTI2018-095997-B-I00 (Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Spain) and INCITE 10PXIB402096PR, IN607B 2016/12 (Consellería de Economía, Emprego e Industria - GAIN, Xunta de Galicia). Antonio Figueras, Beatriz Novoa, Rebeca Moreira, Alberto Pallavicini, Marco Gerdol, Paola Venier, and Umberto Rosani are supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement no. 678589. David Posada is supported by the European Research Council, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, and Xunta de Galicia. We acknowledge the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to the EMBL partnership, the Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa, the CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, the Generalitat de Catalunya through Departament de Salut and Departament d'Empresa i Coneixement, and the Co-financing by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation with funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) corresponding to the 2014-2020 Smart Growth Operating Program

12 pages, 5 figures, 6 tables, supplemental material https://doi.org/10.25387/g3.12640691 ; The octocoral, Paramuricea clavata, is a habitat-forming anthozoan with a key ecological role in rocky benthic and biodiversity-rich communities in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic. Shallow populations of P. clavata in the North-Western Mediterranean are severely affected by warming-induced mass mortality events (MMEs). These MMEs have differentially impacted individuals and populations of P. clavata (i.e., varied levels of tissue necrosis and mortality rates) over thousands of kilometers of coastal areas. The eco-evolutionary processes, including genetic factors, contributing to these differential responses remain to be characterized. Here, we sequenced a P. clavata individual with short and long read technologies, producing 169.98 Gb of Illumina paired-end and 3.55 Gb of Oxford Nanopore Technologies (ONT) reads. We obtained a de novo genome assembly accounting for 607 Mb in 64,145 scaffolds. The contig and scaffold N50s are 19.15 Kb and 23.92 Kb, respectively. Despite of the low contiguity of the assembly, its gene completeness is relatively high, including 75.8% complete and 9.4% fragmented genes out of the 978 metazoan genes contained in the metazoa_odb9 database. A total of 62,652 protein-coding genes have been annotated. This assembly is one of the few octocoral genomes currently available. This is undoubtedly a valuable resource for characterizing the genetic bases of the differential responses to thermal stress and for the identification of thermo-resistant individuals and populations. Overall, having the genome of P. clavata will facilitate studies of various aspects of its evolutionary ecology and elaboration of effective conservation plans such as active restoration to overcome the threats of global change ; We acknowledge the funding support of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under grant agreement No 689518 (MERCES) and the Strategic Funding UID/Multi/04423/2013 through national funds provided by FCT – Foundation for Science and Technology and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), in the framework of the programme PT2020. JBL is funded by an assistant researcher contract framework of the RD Unit - UID/Multi/04423/2019 - Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research – financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through COMPETE2020 - Operational Program for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (POCI) and national funds through FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC). AA was partially supported by the FCT project PTDC/CTA-AMB/31774/2017 (POCI-01-0145-FEDER/031774/2017). DGG was supported by an FPU grant (FPU15/05457) from the Spanish Ministry of Education. We acknowledge support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation to the EMBL partnership, the Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa, the CERCA Programme / Generalitat de Catalunya, the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, the Generalitat de Catalunya through Departament de Salut and Departament d'Empresa i Coneixement, and the Co-financing by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation with funds from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) corresponding to the 2014-2020 Smart Growth Operating Program. JBL and JG planned and granted the funding to start the project ; Peer reviewed

Although single base-pair resolution DNA methylation landscapes for embryonic and different somatic cell types provided important insights into epigenetic dynamics and cell-type specificity, such comprehensive profiling is incomplete across human cancer types. This prompted us to perform genome-wide DNA methylation profiling of 22 samples derived from normal tissues and associated neoplasms, including primary tumors and cancer cell lines. Unlike their invariant normal counterparts, cancer samples exhibited highly variable CpG methylation levels in a large proportion of the genome, involving progressive changes during tumor evolution. The whole-genome sequencing results from selected samples were replicated in a large cohort of 1112 primary tumors of various cancer types using genome-scale DNA methylation analysis. Specifically, we determined DNA hypermethylation of promoters and enhancers regulating tumor-suppressor genes, with potential cancer-driving effects. DNA hypermethylation events showed evidence of positive selection, mutual exclusivity and tissue specificity, suggesting their active participation in neoplastic transformation. Our data highlight the extensive changes in DNA methylation that occur in cancer onset, progression and dissemination. ; This work was supported by Institute of Health Carlos III ISCIII Project no. PI11/00321, Spanish Cancer Research Network (RTICC) no. RD12/0036/0039; European Development Regional Fund, 'A way to achieve Europe' ERDF (SAF2014-55000-R), Sandra Ibarra Foundation; Olga Torres Foundation; Cellex Foundation; AGAUR 2014SGR633 grant; Health and Science Departments of the Catalan government (Generalitat de Catalunya) and European Community's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013), grant HEALTH-F5-2011-282510 – BLUEPRINT. HH is a Miguel Servet (CP14/00229) ISCII researcher.

Large-scale gene duplication, including whole-genome duplication (WGD), is a very common phenomenon in eukaryotic genomes. Bursts of gene duplications are considered a major source of evolutionary innovation and have been associated with the increase in biological complexity and adaptive radiations of species (Zhang 2003). In particular, large-scale gene duplications, generally associated with WGDs, have been reported for many eukaryotic lineages including plants (Van de Peer et al. 2017), fungi (Marcet-Houben and Gabaldón 2015), and animals (Taylor et al. 2001). Although large-scale duplication seems less pervasive in animals than in plants, a growing number of studies report such events in animals. Among other lineages, putative WGDs have been described at the base of vertebrates (Ohno 1970; Dehal and Boore 2005; Putnam et al. 2008), and in several lineages of fish (Christoffels et al. 2004; Glasauer and Neuhauss 2014), amphibians (Mable et al. 2011; Session et al. 2016), and arthropods (Jacobson et al. 2013; Kenny et al. 2016; Schwager et al. 2017; Li et al. 2018). Aphids belong to the infraorder Aphidomorpha that includes three families: Aphididae, Adelgidae, and Phylloxeridae (Favret 2013; Nováková et al. 2013; Blackman and Eastop 2000). Aphids and related (Aphidomorpha) species (Becker-Migdisova and Aizenberg 1962) are hemipteran insects that feed on plant sap (Tjallingii 1995). This specialized diet, rich in carbohydrates but poor in nitrogen compounds, has resulted in several adaptations including the establishment of tight relationships with bacterial endosymbionts (Scarborough et al. 2005; Moya et al. 2008; von Dohlen et al. 2017). There are more than 5,000 described aphid species, of which, about 450 have been collected from crop plants, and 100 are considered of significant economic importance (Van Emden and Harrington 2017). Genomes of several aphid species of agricultural interest have been sequenced, including Acyrthosiphon pisum, Myzus persicae, Diuraphis noxia, Aphis glycines, and Sipha flava (International Aphid Genomics Consortium 2010; Nicholson et al. 2015; Mathers et al. 2017; Wenger et al. 2017). However, except for S. flava (subfamily Chaitophorinae), the sequenced aphids belong to a single subfamily, Aphidinae, limiting our understanding of the genomic diversity in this group of insects. Remarkably, most genome analyses in these species have revealed an important number of paralogous sequences and expanded gene families, including amino acid transporters, odorant and gustatory receptor genes, miRNA-specific dicer-1, ago1 genes, and pasha, among others (Smadja et al. 2009; Huerta-Cepas et al. 2010; Jaubert-Possamai et al. 2010; Duncan et al. 2016; Mathers et al. 2017). However, the close relatedness of the sequenced species provides little resolution to the phylogenetic placement of the duplication events, particularly the ancestral ones. Recent studies have focused on assessing patterns of sequence and expression divergence among recently duplicated genes in A. pisum (Fernández et al. 2019) or M. persicae (Mathers et al. 2017). They have also inspected the distribution of old and young A. pisum paralogs along chromosomes, by categorizing the age of genes that are best-reciprocal hits of each other based on the amount of synonymous substitutions (Li et al. 2019). However, we still lack a proper understanding of when the ancestral duplications occurred, and whether they can be linked to phenotypic innovations shared by aphids or related species. To better assess the origin of the paralogous genes of aphids we sequenced the genome of Cinara cedri (Lachninae subfamily, tribe Eulachnini), the first representative genome from an early-branching lineage of the Aphididae family. Cinara species (and most Lachninae) are particular among aphids as they feed on conifers (gymnosperms), whereas all the other genome-sequenced aphids feed on angiosperms. Another clear difference between the Lachninae and the rest of aphids is that two co-obligate endosymbionts (Buchnera aphidicola, Serratia symbiotica) are present in this group, whereas only B. aphidicola is obligate for the rest of aphids (Latorre and Manzano-Marín 2017). We used a phylogeny-based approach (Huerta-Cepas and Gabaldón 2011) to provide the relative timing of aphid duplications in a phylogenetic framework that includes 21 other fully sequenced genomes and two transcriptomes. Our results provide compelling evidence for an ancestral wave of gene duplications, whose origin predates the diversification of all sequenced aphids, adelgids, and phyloxerids, but are subsequent to their divergence from the Coccoidea lineage, ∼106–227 Ma. ; This research was funded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain) (Grant Nos. PGC2018-099344-B-100 and BFU2015-67107). T.G. group also acknowledges support from the Catalan Research Agency (AGAUR) SGR857, and grants from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the grant agreements ERC-2016-724173 and MSC-747607. T.G. also receives support from an INB (Grant No. PT17/0009/0023—ISCIII-SGEFI/ERDF). The authors want to thank Sophia Derdak for her help in the genome polishing step. ; Peer Reviewed ; Postprint (published version)

Aphids (Aphidoidea) are a diverse group of hemipteran insects that feed on plant phloem sap. A common finding in studies of aphid genomes is the presence of a large number of duplicated genes. However, when these duplications occurred remains unclear, partly due to the high relatedness of sequenced species. To better understand the origin of aphid duplications we sequenced and assembled the genome of Cinara cedri, an early branching lineage (Lachninae) of the Aphididae family. We performed a phylogenomic comparison of this genome with 20 other sequenced genomes, including the available genomes of five other aphids, along with the transcriptomes of two species belonging to Adelgidae (a closely related clade to the aphids) and Coccoidea. We found that gene duplication has been pervasive throughout the evolution of aphids, including many parallel waves of recent, species-specific duplications. Most notably, we identified a consistent set of very ancestral duplications, originating from a large-scale gene duplication predating the diversification of Aphidomorpha (comprising aphids, phylloxerids, and adelgids). Genes duplicated in this ancestral wave are enriched in functions related to traits shared by Aphidomorpha, such as association with endosymbionts, and adaptation to plant defenses and phloem-sap-based diet. The ancestral nature of this duplication wave (106–227 Ma) and the lack of sufficiently conserved synteny make it difficult to conclude whether it originated from a whole-genome duplication event or, alternatively, from a burst of large-scale segmental duplications. Genome sequencing of other aphid species belonging to different Aphidomorpha and related lineages may clarify these findings. ; This research was funded by European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Spain) (Grant Nos. PGC2018-099344-B-100 and BFU2015-67107). T.G. group also acknowledges support from the Catalan Research Agency (AGAUR) SGR857, and grants from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the grant agreements ERC-2016-724173 and MSC-747607. T.G. also receives support from an INB (Grant No. PT17/0009/0023—ISCIII-SGEFI/ERDF). ; Peer reviewed

The turbot is a flatfish (Pleuronectiformes) with increasing commercial value, which has prompted active genomic research aimed at more efficient selection. Here we present the sequence and annotation of the turbot genome, which represents a milestone for both boosting breeding programmes and ascertaining the origin and diversification of flatfish. We compare the turbot genome with model fish genomes to investigate teleost chromosome evolution. We observe a conserved macrosyntenic pattern within Percomorpha and identify large syntenic blocks within the turbot genome related to the teleost genome duplication. We identify gene family expansions and positive selection of genes associated with vision and metabolism of membrane lipids, which suggests adaptation to demersal lifestyle and to cold temperatures, respectively. Our data indicate a quick evolution and diversification of flatfish to adapt to benthic life and provide clues for understanding their controversial origin. Moreover, we investigate the genomic architecture of growth, sex determination and disease resistance, key traits for understanding local adaptation and boosting turbot production, by mapping candidate genes and previously reported quantitative trait loci. The genomic architecture of these productive traits has allowed the identification of candidate genes and enriched pathways that may represent useful information for future marker-assisted selection in turbot. ; This work was funded by the Spanish Government: projects Consolider Ingenio: Aquagenomics (CSD2007-00002) and Metagenoma de la Península Ibérica (CSD2007-00005), Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad and European Regional Development Funds (AGL2012-35904), and Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (AGL2014-51773 and AGL2014-57065-R); and Local Government Xunta de Galicia (GRC2014/010). P.P. and D.R. gratefully acknowledge the Spanish Ministerio de Educación for their FPU fellowships (AP2010-2408, AP2012-0254). Funding to pay the Open Access publication charges for this article was provided by the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (AGL2014-51773) and Xunta de Galicia (GRC2014/010).

Determining the effect of DNA methylation on chromatin structure and function in higher organisms is challenging due to the extreme complexity of epigenetic regulation. We studied a simpler model system, budding yeast, that lacks DNA methylation machinery making it a perfect model system to study the intrinsic role of DNA methylation in chromatin structure and function. We expressed the murine DNA methyltransferases in Saccharomyces cerevisiae and analyzed the correlation between DNA methylation, nucleosome positioning, gene expression and 3D genome organization. Despite lacking the machinery for positioning and reading methylation marks, induced DNA methylation follows a conserved pattern with low methylation levels at the 5' end of the gene increasing gradually toward the 3' end, with concentration of methylated DNA in linkers and nucleosome free regions, and with actively expressed genes showing low and high levels of methylation at transcription start and terminating sites respectively, mimicking the patterns seen in mammals. We also see that DNA methylation increases chromatin condensation in peri-centromeric regions, decreases overall DNA flexibility, and favors the heterochromatin state. Taken together, these results demonstrate that methylation intrinsically modulates chromatin structure and function even in the absence of cellular machinery evolved to recognize and process the methylation signal. ; This work has been supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science (BIO2012-32868), the Catalan SGR, the Instituto Nacional de Bioinformática, the European Research Council (ERC_SimDNA) and the BioExcel and MuG VRE H2000 projects. M.O. is an ICREA Academia Fellow. This project also received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 754510 [to J.P.A. and M.O.]. The work of S.H. was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science (PGC2018-099640-B-I00). A.E.C. is funded by ISCIII /MINECO (PT17/0009/0019) and co-funded by FEDER.