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Updated: Jul 24, 2025

Genotyping of Sea Anemone during Early Development
Published on: May 13, 2019
Genomic and ecological factors shaping specialism and generalism across an entire subphylum
Dana A Opulente1, Abigail Leavitt LaBella2, Marie-Claire Harrison3
1Laboratory of Genetics, DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Center for Genomic Science Innovation, J. F. Crow Institute for the Study of Evolution, Wisconsin Energy Institute, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53726, USA; Biology Department Villanova University, Villanova, PA 19085, USA.
Abstract:
Organisms exhibit extensive variation in ecological niche breadth, from very narrow (specialists) to very broad (generalists). Paradigms proposed to explain this variation either invoke trade-offs between performance efficiency and breadth or underlying intrinsic or extrinsic factors. We assembled genomic (1,154 yeast strains from 1,049 species), metabolic (quantitative measures of growth of 843 species in 24 conditions), and ecological (environmental ontology of 1,088 species) data from nearly all known species of the ancient fungal subphylum Saccharomycotina to examine niche breadth evolution. We found large interspecific differences in carbon breadth stem from intrinsic differences in genes encoding specific metabolic pathways but no evidence of trade-offs and a limited role of extrinsic ecological factors. These comprehensive data argue that intrinsic factors driving microbial niche breadth variation.
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