Biology subjects

Sola, C.

Publications and source records attributed to Sola, C..

6 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

Diploid genome assembly of the Malbec grapevine cultivar enables haplotype-aware analysis of transcriptomic differences underlying clonal phenotypic variation

1.To preserve their varietal attributes, established grapevine cultivars (Vitis vinifera L. ssp. vinifera) must be clonally propagated, due to their highly heterozygous genomes. Malbec is a France-originated cultivar appreciated for producing high-quality wines, and is the offspring of cultivars Prunelard and Magdeleine Noire des Charentes. Here, we have built a diploid genome assembly of Malbec, after trio binning of PacBio long reads into the two haploid complements inherited from either parent. After haplotype-aware deduplication and corrections, complete assemblies for the two haplophases were obtained with very low haplotype switch-error rate (<0.025). The haplophases alignment identified >25% of polymorphic regions. Gene annotation including RNA-seq transcriptome assembly and ab initio prediction evidence resulted in similar gene model numbers for both haplophases. The annotated diploid assembly was exploited in the transcriptomic comparison of four clonal accessions of Malbec that exhibited variation in berry composition traits. Analysis of the ripening pericarp transcriptome using either haplophases as reference yielded similar results, although some differences were observed. Particularly, among the differentially expressed genes identified only with the Magdeleine-inherited haplotype as reference, we observed an over-representation of hypothetically hemizygous genes. The higher berry anthocyanin content of clonal accession 595 was associated with increased abscisic acid responses, possibly leading to the observed overexpression of phenylpropanoid metabolism genes and deregulation of genes associated to abiotic stress response. Overall, the results highlight the importance of producing diploid assemblies to fully represent the genomic diversity of highly heterozygous woody crop cultivars and to unveil the molecular bases of clonal phenotypic variation.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2023

TB-annotator: a scalable web application that allows in-depth analysis of very large sets of publicly available Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex genomes

Tuberculosis continues to be one of the most threatening bacterial diseases in the world. However, we currently have more than 160,000 Short Read Archives (SRAs) of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. Such a large amount of data should help to the understanding and the fight against this bacterium. To accomplish this, it would be necessary to thoroughly and comprehensively examine this significant mass of data. This is what TB-Annotator proposes to do, combining a database containing all the diversity of these 160,000 SRAs (at least, SRAs with a reasonable read size and quality), and a fully featured analysis platform to explore and query such a large amount of data. The objective of this article is to present this platform centered on the key notion of exclusivity, to show its numerous capacities (detection of single nucleotide variants, insertion sequences, deletion regions, spoligotyping, etc.) and its general functioning. We will compare TB-Annotator to existing tools for the study of tuberculosis, and show that its objectives are original and have no equivalent at present. The database on which it is based will be presented, with the numerous advanced search queries and screening capacities it offers, and the interest and originality of its phylogenetic tree navigation interface will be detailed. We will end this article with examples of the achievements made possible by the TB-Annotator, followed by avenues for future improvement.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2020

Clonal propagation history shapes the intra-cultivar genetic diversity in Malbec grapevines

Grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) cultivars are clonally propagated to preserve their varietal attributes. However, novel genetic variation still accumulates due to somatic mutations. Aiming to study the potential impact of clonal propagation history on grapevines intra-cultivar genetic diversity, we have focused on Malbec. This cultivar is appreciated for red wines elaboration, it was originated in Southwestern France and introduced into Argentina during the 1850s. Here, we generated whole-genome resequencing data for four Malbec clones with different historical backgrounds. A stringent variant calling procedure was established to identify reliable clonal polymorphisms, additionally corroborated by Sanger sequencing. This analysis retrieved 941 single nucleotide variants (SNVs), occurring among the analyzed clones. Based on a set of validated SNVs, a genotyping experiment was custom-designed to survey Malbec genetic diversity. We successfully genotyped 214 samples and identified 14 different clonal genotypes, that clustered into two genetically divergent groups. Group-Ar was driven by clones with a long history of clonal propagation in Argentina, while Group-Fr was driven by clones that have longer remained in Europe. Findings show the ability of such approaches for clonal genotypes identification in grapevines. In particular, we provide evidence on how human actions may have shaped Malbec extant genetic diversity pattern.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2020

Local adaptation in populations of Mycobacterium tuberculosis endemic to the Indian Ocean Rim

Lineage 1 (L1) and 3 (L3) are two lineages of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC), causing tuberculosis (TB) in humans. L1 and L3 are endemic to the Rim of the Indian Ocean, the region that accounts for most of the worlds new TB cases. Despite their relevance for this region, L1 and L3 remain understudied. Here we analyzed 2,938 L1 and 2,030 L3 whole genome sequences originating from 69 countries. We show that South Asia played a central role in the dispersion of these two lineages to neighboring regions. Moreover, we found that L1 exhibits signatures of local adaptation at the esxH locus, a gene coding for a secreted effector that targets the human endosomal sorting complex, and is included in several vaccine candidates. Our study highlights the importance of genetic diversity in the MTBC, and sheds new light on two of the most important MTBC lineages affecting humans.

genomics↗

bioRxiv2019

Unexpected diversity of CRISPR unveils some evolutionary patterns of repeated sequences in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Diversity of the CRISPR locus of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex has been studied since 1997 for molecular epidemiology purposes. By targeting solely the 43 spacers present in the two first sequenced genomes (H37Rv and BCG), it gave a biased idea of CRISPR diversity and ignored diversity in the neighbouring cas-genes. We set up tailored pipelines to explore the diversity of CRISPR-cas locus in Short Reads. We analyzed data from a representative set of 198 clinical isolates as evidenced by well-characterized SNPs. We found a relatively low diversity in terms of spacers: we recovered only the 68 spacers that had been described in 2000. We found no partial or global inversions in the sequences, letting always the Direct Variant Repeats (DVR) in the same order. In contrast, we found an unexpected diversity in the form of: SNPs in spacers and in Direct Repeats, duplications of various length, and insertions at various locations of the IS6110 insertion sequence, as well as blocks of DVR deletions. The diversity was in part specific to lineages. When reconstructing evolutionary steps of the locus, we found no evidence for SNP reversal. DVR deletions were linked to recombination between IS6110 insertions or between Direct Repeats. This work definitively shows that CRISPR locus of M. tuberculosis did not evolve by classical CRISPR adaptation (incorporation of new spacers) since the last most recent common ancestor of virulent lineages. The evolutionary mechanisms that we discovered could be involved in bacterial adaptation but in a way that remains to be identified.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2019

Exhaustive reconstruction of the CRISPR locus in Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex using short reads

Spoligotyping, a graphical partial display of the CRISPR locus that can be produced in vitro or in silico, is an important tool for analyzing the diversity of given Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) isolates. As other CRISPR loci, this locus is made up of an alternation between direct repeats and spacers, and flanked by cas genes. Unveiling the genetic mechanisms of its evolution requires to have a fairly large amount of fully reconstructed loci among all MTC lineages. In this article, we point out and resolve the problem of CRISPR reconstruction based on short read sequences. We first show that more than 1/3 of the currently assembled genomes available for this complex contain a CRISPR locus erroneously reconstructed, and errors can be very significant. Second, we present a new computational method allowing this locus to be reconstructed extensively and reliably in silico using short read sequencing runs. Third, using this method, we describe new structural characteristics of CRISPR locus by lineages. We show how both the classical experimental in vitro approach and the basic in silico spoligotyping provided by existing analytic tools miss a whole diversity of this locus in MTC, by not capturing duplications, spacer and direct repeats variants, and IS6110 insertion locations. This description is extended in a second article that presents general rules for the evolution of the CRISPR locus in MTC. This work opens new perspectives for a larger exploration of CRISPR loci diversity and of mechanisms involved in its evolution and its functionality.

genomics↗