Hydra has mammal-like mutation rates facilitating fast adaptation despite its nonaging phenotype
- Arne Sahm1,2,3,
- Konstantin Riege2,
- Marco Groth4,
- Martin Bens4,
- Johann Kraus5,
- Martin Fischer2,
- Hans Kestler5,
- Christoph Englert6,7,
- Ralf Schaible2,
- Matthias Platzer2,8 and
- Steve Hoffmann2,8
- 1Computational Phenomics group, IUF—Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany;
- 2Computational Biology Group, Leibniz Institute on Aging—Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI), 07745 Jena, Germany;
- 3Computational Phenomics group, Faculty of Biology and Biotechnology, Ruhr University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany;
- 4Core Facility Next Generation Sequencing, Leibniz Institute on Aging—Fritz Lipmann Institute, 07745 Jena, Germany;
- 5Institute of Medical Systems Biology, Ulm University, 89081 Ulm, Germany;
- 6Molecular Genetics Lab, Leibniz Institute on Aging—Fritz Lipmann Institute (FLI), 07745 Jena, Germany;
- 7Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, 07745 Jena, Germany
Abstract
Growing evidence suggests that somatic mutations may be a major cause of the aging process. However, it remains to be tested whether the predictions of the theory also apply to species with longer life spans than humans. Hydra is a genus of freshwater polyps with remarkable regeneration abilities and a potentially unlimited life span under laboratory conditions. By genome sequencing of single cells and whole animals, we found that the mutation rates in Hydra’s stem cells are even slightly higher than in humans or mice. A potential explanation for this deviation from the prediction of the theory may lie in the adaptability offered by a higher mutation rate, as we were able to show that the genome of the widely studied Hydra magnipapillata strain 105 has undergone a process of strong positive selection since the strain's cultivation 50 years ago. This most likely represents a rapid adaptation to the drastically altered environmental conditions associated with the transition from the wild to laboratory conditions. Processes under positive selection in captive animals include pathways associated with Hydra’s simple nervous system, its nucleic acid metabolic process, cell migration, and hydrolase activity.
Footnotes
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↵8 Shared senior-authorship.
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[Supplemental material is available for this article.]
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Article published online before print. Article, supplemental material, and publication date are at https://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.279025.124.
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Freely available online through the Genome Research Open Access option.
- Received January 23, 2024.
- Accepted October 18, 2024.
This article, published in Genome Research, is available under a Creative Commons License (Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International), as described at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
