Fixation of allelic gene expression landscapes and expression bias pattern shape the transcriptome of the clonal Amazon molly

Abstract

The Amazon molly is a unique clonal fish species that originated from an interspecies hybrid between Poecilia species P. mexicana and P. latipinna. It reproduces by gynogenesis, which eliminates paternal genomic contribution to offspring. An earlier study showed that Amazon molly shows biallelic expression for a large portion of the genome, leading to two main questions: (1) Are the allelic expression patterns from the initial hybridization event stabilized or changed during establishment of the asexual species and its further evolution? (2) Is allelic expression biased toward one parental allele a stochastic or adaptive process? To answer these questions, the allelic expression of P. formosa siblings was assessed to investigate intra- and inter-cohort allelic expression variability. For comparison, interspecies hybrids between P. mexicana and P. latipinna were produced in the laboratory to represent the P. formosa ancestor. We have identified inter-cohort and intra-cohort variation in parental allelic expression. The existence of inter-cohort divergence suggests functional P. formosa allelic expression patterns do not simply reflect the atavistic situation of the first interspecies hybrid but potentially result from long-term selection of transcriptional fitness. In addition, clonal fish show a transcriptional trend representing minimal intra-clonal variability in allelic expression patterns compared to the corresponding hybrids. The intra-clonal similarity in gene expression translates to sophisticated genetic functional regulation at the individuum level. These findings suggest the parental alleles inherited by P. formosa form tightly regulated genetic networks that lead to a stable transcriptomic landscape within clonal individuals.