Biology subjects

Geiss, M.

Publications and source records attributed to Geiss, M..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Pervasive and dynamic release of Cryptic Genetic Variation in Chironomus riparius: Rethinking adaptation in fluctuating environments

The interplay between phenotypic plasticity and cryptic genetic variation (CGV) is crucial for understanding adaptation, yet the prevailing paradigm suggests CGV is primarily exposed under novel or extreme conditions. By examining gene expression responses along a natural temperature gradient in Chironomus riparius, we challenged this view. We found that the vast majority of expressed genes (63%) exhibit dynamic CGV, where interindividual expression variability scales continuously with distance from the selectively optimal temperature, a pattern also observed in higher-level traits like mutation rate and ROS levels. Genes with lower overall expression levels were less temperature-regulated, and thermal reaction norm shapes varied with gene function. Unexpectedly, thermally plastic genes were more pleiotropic, often acting as hub genes, while CGV in gene expression was associated with lower pleiotropy. This pattern, and the observed strong recurrent selection on plastic genes with CGV, aligns with C. ripariuss adaptation to its highly fluctuating environment through selective tracking. We propose that this continuous, dynamic release of genetic variation is a necessary and inherent outcome of the polygenic nature of traits. This model fundamentally reshapes our understanding of adaptation, implying that populations can gradually and continuously adapt without requiring harsh conditions to expose hidden diversity. This leads to smoother adaptive landscapes, enhancing rapid adaptation and facilitating evolutionary innovation in the face of ongoing environmental change.

evolutionary biology↗

bioRxiv2025

Dissecting Oxidative Stress and Organismic Response to various Temperature Regimes in the midge C. riparius

Oxidative stress, driven by reactive oxygen species (ROS), poses a major challenge for organisms facing temperature fluctuations. This study provides the first direct in vivo measurements of ROS production in an insect, Chironomus riparius, across a broad range of ecologically relevant temperatures. We observed a U-shaped pattern of oxidative stress, with minimal ROS levels within an optimal thermal window (12-18{degrees}C) and significantly elevated stress at both cold and warm extremes. Crucially, our findings reveal distinct underlying molecular mechanisms for ROS generation at these extremes: at low temperatures, ROS production is predominantly of the superoxide group, linked to hypoxia-induced hemoglobin autoxidation. Conversely, at high temperatures, the hydrogen peroxide group dominates, associated with increased metabolic rate and heat stress signaling pathways. Transcriptomic analysis shows that C. ripariuss antioxidant defense system adapts accordingly, selectively upregulating mechanisms to counteract the specific dominant ROS type at different temperatures. This mechanistically differentiated oxidative stress and the modulated organismic response profoundly impacts the overall ecological success and evolution of C. riparius as a model for thermal stress in ectotherms. Summary StatementThis study shows that cold and heat stress activate different oxidative damage pathways in midge larvae, explaining how organisms face unique physiological limits in thermal extremes.

ecology↗

bioRxiv2017

Time-Consistent Reconciliation Maps and ForbiddenTime Travel

BackgroundIn the absence of horizontal gene transfer it is possible to reconstruct the history of gene families from empirically determined orthology relations, which are equivalent to event-labeled gene trees. Knowledge of the event labels considerably simplifies the problem of reconciling a gene tree T with a species trees S, relative to the reconciliation problem without prior knowledge of the event types. It is well-known that optimal reconciliations in the unlabeled case may violate time-consistency and thus are not biologically feasible. Here we investigate the mathematical structure of the event labeled reconciliation problem with horizontal transfer.\n\nResultsWe investigate the issue of time-consistency for the event-labeled version of the reconciliation problem, provide a convenient axiomatic framework, and derive a complete characterization of time-consistent reconciliations. This characterization depends on certain weak conditions on the event-labeled gene trees that reflect conditions under which evolutionary events are observable at least in principle. We give an [O](|V(T)|log(|V(S)|))-time algorithm to decide whether a time-consistent reconciliation map exists. It does not require the construction of explicit timing maps, but relies entirely on the comparably easy task of checking whether a small auxiliary graph is acyclic. The algorithms are implemented in C++ using the boost graph library and are freely available at https://github.com/Nojgaard/tc-recon.\n\nSignificanceThe combinatorial characterization of time consistency and thus biologically feasible reconciliation is an important step towards the inference of gene family histories with horizontal transfer from orthology data, i.e., without presupposed gene and species trees. The fast algorithm to decide time consistency is useful in a broader context because it constitutes an attractive component for all tools that address tree reconciliation problems.

evolutionary biology↗