Genome-wide survey of natural selection on functional, structural, and network properties of polymorphic sites in Saccharomyces paradoxus.

BACKGROUND: To characterize the genetic basis of phenotypic evolution, numerous studies have identified individual genes that have likely evolved under natural selection. However, phenotypic changes may represent the cumulative effect of similar evolutionary forces acting on functionally related groups of genes. Phylogenetic analyses of divergent yeast species have identified functional groups of genes that have evolved at significantly different rates, suggestive of differential selection on the functional properties. However, due to environmental heterogeneity over long evolutionary timescales, selection operating within a single lineage may be dramatically different, and it is not detectable via interspecific comparisons alone. Moreover, interspecific studies typically quantify selection on protein-coding regions using the D(n)/D(s) ratio, which cannot be extended easily to study selection on noncoding regions or synonymous sites. The population genetic-based analysis of selection operating within a single lineage ameliorates these limitations.
FINDINGS: We investigated selection on several properties associated with genes, promoters, or polymorphic sites, by analyzing the derived allele frequency spectrum of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 28 strains of Saccharomyces paradoxus. We found evidence for significant differential selection between many functionally relevant categories of SNPs, underscoring the utility of function-centric approaches for discovering signatures of natural selection. When comparable, our findings are largely consistent with previous studies based on interspecific comparisons, with one notable exception: our study finds that mutations from an ancient amino acid to a relatively new amino acid are selectively disfavored, whereas interspecific comparisons have found selection against ancient amino acids. Several of our findings have not been addressed through prior interspecific studies: we find that synonymous mutations from preferred to unpreferred codons are selected against and that synonymous SNPs in the linker regions of proteins are relatively less constrained than those within protein domains.
CONCLUSIONS: We present the first global survey of selection acting on various functional properties in S. paradoxus. We found that selection pressures previously detected over long evolutionary timescales have also shaped the evolution of S. paradoxus. Importantly, we also make novel discoveries untenable via conventional interspecific analyses.