Unisexuality and molecular drive:: Bag320 sequence diversity in Bacillus taxa (Insecta phasmatodea)

Satellite DNA variability follows a pattern of concerted evolution through homogenization of new variants by genomic turnover mechanisms and variant fixation by chromosome redistribution into new combinations with the sexual process. Bacillus taxa share the same Bag320 satellite family and their reproduction ranges from strict bisexuality (B. grandii) to automictic (B. atticus) and apomictic (B. whitei = rossius/grandii; B. lynceorum = rossius/grandii/atticus) unisexuality. Thelytokous reproduction clearly allows uncoupling of homogenization from fixation. Both trends and absolute values of satellite variability were analyzed in all Bacillus taxa but B. rossius, on 906 sequenced monomers at all level of comparisons: intraspecimen, intrapopulation, interpopulation, intersubspecies, and interspecies. For unisexuals, allozymic and mitochondrial clones were also taken into account. Different reproductive modes (sexual/parthenogenetic) appear to explain observed variability trends, supporting Dover's hypothesis of sexuality acting as a driving force in the fixation of sequence variants, but the present analyses also highlight current spreading of new variants in B. grandii maretimi specimens and point to a biased sequence inheritance at the time of hybrid onset in the apomictic hybrids B. whitei and B. lynceorum. Evidence of biased gene conversion events suggests that, given enough time, sequence homogenization can take place in a unisexual such as B. lynceorum. On the contrary, the absolute values of sequence diversity in each taxon are linked to the species' range, time of divergence, and repeat copy number and, possibly, to transposon features. Satellite dynamics appears therefore to be the outcome of both general molecular processes and specific organismal traits.