Genomes of 12 fig wasps provide insights into the adaptation of pollinators to fig syconia

Xiao, Jin‐Hua; Wei, Xianqin; Zhou, Yi; Xin, Zhao-Zhe; Miao, Yun-Heng; Hou, Hong-Xia; Li, Jiaxing; Zhao, Dan; Liu, Jing; Chen, Rui; Niu, Li‐Ming; Ma, Guang-Chang; Zhen, Wenquan; He, Shunmin; Wang, Jianxia; Wei, Xunfan; Dou, Weihao; Sui, Zhuoxiao; Zhang, Haikuan; Xing, Shilai; Shi, Miao; Huang, Dawei

doi:10.1016/j.jgg.2021.02.010

Cited by 9 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 75 publications

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“…Their larvae feed inside the fig syconia, and pollinate the fig. This remarkable mutualism originated 66~75 Mya (Heraty et al, 2013;Xiao et al, 2013Xiao et al, , 2021Peters et al, 2018). Ceratosolen solmsi is an important pollinator for its host tropical fig tree Ficus hispida, and we identified a 9-bp candidate TRM (TTATTGGGG)n, which differs from the 8-bp Chalcidoidea motif by a single Guanine addition (Fig 4 and Supplemental Data 4).…”

Section: Ttagg Is the Ancestral Trm Across 19 Insecta Ordersmentioning

confidence: 91%

Profiles of telomeric repeats in Insecta reveal diverse forms of telomeric motifs in Hymenopterans

et al. 2022

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Telomeres consist of highly conserved simple tandem telomeric repeat motif (TRM): (TTAGG)n in arthropods, (TTAGGG)n in vertebrates, and (TTTAGGG)n in most plants. TRM can be detected from chromosome-level assembly, which typically requires long-read sequencing data. To take advantage of short-read data, we developed an ultra-fast Telomeric Repeats Identification Pipeline and evaluated its performance on 91 species. With proven accuracy, we applied Telomeric Repeats Identification Pipeline in 129 insect species, using 7 Tbp of short-read sequences. We confirmed (TTAGG)n as the TRM in 19 orders, suggesting it is the ancestral form in insects. Systematic profiling in Hymenopterans revealed a diverse range of TRMs, including the canonical 5-bp TTAGG (bees, ants, and basal sawflies), three independent losses of tandem repeat form TRM (Ichneumonoids, hunting wasps, and gall-forming wasps), and most interestingly, a common 8-bp (TTATTGGG)n in Chalcid wasps with two 9-bp variants in the miniature wasp (TTACTTGGG) and fig wasps (TTATTGGGG). Our results identified extraordinary evolutionary fluidity of Hymenopteran TRMs, and rapid evolution of TRM and repeat abundance at all evolutionary scales, providing novel insights into telomere evolution.

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Section: Ttagg Is the Ancestral Trm Across 19 Insecta Ordersmentioning

confidence: 91%

Profiles of telomeric repeats in Insecta reveal diverse forms of telomeric motifs in Hymenopterans

et al. 2022

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“…The diverse evolutionary patterns may be attributed to the differences in evolutionary history of the fig wasps associated with figs. Compared to non-pollinators, pollinators have spent much longer co-evolutionary with figs, and the fig ovaries provide a relatively safe and stable environment to pollinators, providing enough nutrients to pollinators and protecting them from pathogens [ 18 ]. Moreover, the lifestyles of pollinators and non-pollinators are different, since the non-pollinators spend much longer outside figs than pollinators, especially in the processes of mating and egg-laying; thus, their instances of exposure to pathogens are different.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies of fig wasps’ innate immunity have identified the gene members of immune signal pathways, as well as some pathogen receptors, such as peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs). The results showed that pollinators possessed a more streamlined immune system than non-pollinators [ 17 , 18 ]. Since those studies are enlightening, there is a need to explore the differences in the other immune recognition receptors between pollinators and non-pollinators.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genome-Wide Analysis of Gene Families of Pattern Recognition Receptors in Fig Wasps (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea)

Hou

Huang

Xin

et al. 2021

Genes

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Pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) play important roles in detecting pathogens and initiating the innate immune response. Different evolutionary histories of pollinators and non-pollinators may result in different immune recognition systems. A previous study had reported that there were significant differences in peptidoglycan recognition proteins (PGRPs) between pollinators and non-pollinators in gene number and lineage of specific genes. In this study, based on the genomic data of 12 fig wasp species, with seven pollinators and five non-pollinators, we investigated the evolution patterns of PRRs, such as Gram-negative bacteria-binding proteins (GNBPs), C-type lectins (CTLs), scavenger receptors class B (SCRBs), fibrinogen-related proteins (FREPs), galectins, and thioester-containing proteins (TEPs). Our results showed that pollinators had no GNBP, but non-pollinators all had two gene members, which were clustered into two different clades in the phylogenetic tree, with each clade having specific domain and motif characteristics. The analysis of CTL and SCRB gene families also showed that there were lineage-specific genes and specific expansion in non-pollinators. Our results showed that there were significant differences in immune recognition between pollinators and non-pollinators, and we concluded that they had undergone flexible adaptive evolution in different environments. Our study can provide more molecular evidence for future functional studies on the immune system of fig wasps.

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“…We used the seven lipase genes from Drosophila melanogaster as query sequences to make local tblastn in the genomes of 12 fig wasp species, including seven pollinators ( Eupristina koningsbergeri , Platyscapa corneri , Kradibia gibbosae , Ceratosolen fusciceps , Ceratosolen solmsi , Dolichoris vasculosae , and Wiebesia pumilae ), and five NPFWs ( Apocrypta bakeri , Philotrypesis tridentata , Sycobia sp.2, Sycophila sp.2, and Sycophaga agraensis ) ( Table S1 ). Except for the data of C. solmsi downloaded from National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI, , accessed on 26 August 2021) under the project accession number PRJNA277475, the genomes and transcriptomes of other 11 fig wasps were deposited to NCBI under the project accession numbers PRJNA641212 and PRJNA494992 [ 24 ]. The gene sequences and structures were verified by an Integrative Genomics Viewer (IGV) ( , accessed on 26 August 2021) [ 25 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…CAFÉ employs a random birth-death process to model changes in gene family size while accounting for phylogenetic relationships. Based on lambda values (the probability of gene gain and loss per unit of time during species evolution) with default parameters, the divergence tree constructed by Xiao, et al [ 24 ] was applied in this analysis.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genome-Wide Identification and Analysis of Lipases in Fig Wasps (Chalcidoidea, Hymenoptera)

Wei

Wang

et al. 2022

Insects

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Lipases are the main enzymes involved in lipid metabolism. However, the characteristics of lipases in insects were scarcely investigated. Here, we screened the recently sequenced genomes of 12 fig wasp species consisting of seven pollinator fig wasps (PFWs) and five non-pollinating fig wasps (NPFWs) for the six major lipase gene families. In total, 481 lipase genes were identified, and the two most numerous families were the neutral and acid lipases. Tandem duplication accounted for the expansion of the gene family. NPFWs had significantly more lipases than PFWs. A significant gene family contraction occurred in the clade of PFWs. The difference of lipases between NPFWs and PFWs might contribute to their distinction in life histories and feeding regimes. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the lipase genes of each fig wasp species was almost equally distributed in each clade, indicating that the lipase genes were conserved. The gene structures were similar within each clade, while they were different among clades. Most of the neutral and acid lipases were signal peptides and located extracellularly. The pathways of lipases involved were predicted. This genome-wide study provides a systematic analysis of lipase gene families in 12 hymenopteran insects and further insights towards understanding the potential functions of lipases.

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Genomes of 12 fig wasps provide insights into the adaptation of pollinators to fig syconia

Cited by 9 publications

References 75 publications

Profiles of telomeric repeats in Insecta reveal diverse forms of telomeric motifs in Hymenopterans

Profiles of telomeric repeats in Insecta reveal diverse forms of telomeric motifs in Hymenopterans

Genome-Wide Analysis of Gene Families of Pattern Recognition Receptors in Fig Wasps (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea)

Genome-Wide Identification and Analysis of Lipases in Fig Wasps (Chalcidoidea, Hymenoptera)

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