Horizontal Transfer of Microbial Toxin Genes to Gall Midge Genomes

Verster, Kirsten I.; Tarnopol, Rebecca L.; Akalu, Saron M.; Whiteman, Noah K.

doi:10.1093/gbe/evab202

Cited by 10 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 89 publications

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“…Remarkably, the cdtB copies in the non-Scaptomyza drosophilids and aphids encode the same intron-exon splice junctions. This gene has also been found in the genomes of cecidomyiid gall midges and thrips (Verster et al 2021).…”

Section: A Tale Of Two Toxinsmentioning

confidence: 80%

Evolution in small steps and giant leaps

Whiteman

2022

Evolution

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The first Editor of Evolution was Ernst Mayr. His foreword to the first issue of Evolution published in 1947 framed evolution as a "problem of interaction" that was just beginning to be studied in this broad context. First, I explore progress and prospects on understanding the subsidiary interactions identified by Mayr, including interactions between parts of organisms, between individuals and populations, between species, and between the organism and its abiotic environment. Mayr's overall "problem of interaction" framework is examined in the context of coevolution within and among levels of biological organization. This leads to a comparison in the relative roles of biotic versus abiotic agents of selection and fluctuating versus directional selection, followed by stabilizing selection in shaping the genomic architecture of adaptation. Oligogenic architectures may be typical for traits shaped more by fluctuating selection and biotic selection. Conversely, polygenic architectures may be typical for traits shaped more by directional followed by stabilizing selection and abiotic selection. The distribution of effect sizes and turnover dynamics of adaptive alleles in these scenarios deserves further study. Second, I review two case studies on the evolution of acquired toxicity in animals, one involving cardiac glycosides obtained from plants and one involving bacterial virulence factors horizontally transferred to animals. The approaches used in these studies and the results gained directly flow from Mayr's vision of an evolutionary biology that revolves around the "problem of interaction."

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Section: A Tale Of Two Toxinsmentioning

confidence: 80%

Evolution in small steps and giant leaps

Whiteman

2022

Evolution

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“…In insects some examples of HGT acquired genes involved in defense include bacterial lysozymes acquired by pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum (Nikoh et al 2010) and by Halyomorpha halys (Ioannidis et al 2014). Recently, the acquisition by HGT of five toxin genes in C. nasturtii species was reported, which plays a nontrivial new role in insect immune function against eukaryotic enemies (Verster et al 2021). In line with our model, the authors postulated that most likely donors are microbes that share the same environment with swede midge.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Foreign Ribosome Inactivating Proteins as immune effectors in insects

Lapadula

Ayub

2023

Preprint

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Ribosome inactivating proteins (RIPs) are RNA N-glycosidases that depurinate an adenine residue in the conserved alpha-sarcin/ricin loop (SRL) of rRNA. This ribosomal modification inhibits protein synthesis. During the last years, we have reported the existence of these toxins in insects, where their presence is restricted to mosquitoes from the Culicinae subfamily (e.g. Aedes aegypti) and whiteflies from Aleyrodidae family (e.g. Bemisia tabaci). Combination of phylogeny and synteny analyses showed that both groups of genes are derived from two independent horizontal gene transfer (HGT) events. Interestingly, we found that RIP encoding genes have been evolving under purifying selection, indicating that they have a positive impact on fitness of host organisms. We also demonstrated that A. aegypti RIP genes are transcribed and their transcripts are polyadenylated. Although the biological roles of these toxins remain open to speculation, defense activities have been postulated for plant and bacterial RIPs. Based on these pieces of evidence, we hypothesize that RIPs play a similar protective role in insects. In this work, we report the occurrence of a third HGT event in Sciaroidea superfamily, supporting that RIP genes fulfill an important functional niche in insects. Analysis on transcriptomic experiments from the three groups of insects indicate a convergence in expression profiles which are compatible with immune effectors. Finally, we show the induction in RIP expression after infection with pathogens. Moreover, we show transcriptomic evidence of parasite SRL depurination. Altogether, our results strongly support the role of these foreign genes as immune effectors that confer fitness advantage to host insects.

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“…Phylogenetic analysis supports gene transfer from bacteria to insects. It is suggested that toxin genes might confer a protective function in developing larvae and pupae against other insect predators such as wasps [ 280 ].…”

Section: Insights Into the Evolution Of Bacterial Protein Toxinsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overview of Bacterial Protein Toxins from Pathogenic Bacteria: Mode of Action and Insights into Evolution

Popoff

2024

Toxins

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Bacterial protein toxins are secreted by certain bacteria and are responsible for mild to severe diseases in humans and animals. They are among the most potent molecules known, which are active at very low concentrations. Bacterial protein toxins exhibit a wide diversity based on size, structure, and mode of action. Upon recognition of a cell surface receptor (protein, glycoprotein, and glycolipid), they are active either at the cell surface (signal transduction, membrane damage by pore formation, or hydrolysis of membrane compound(s)) or intracellularly. Various bacterial protein toxins have the ability to enter cells, most often using an endocytosis mechanism, and to deliver the effector domain into the cytosol, where it interacts with an intracellular target(s). According to the nature of the intracellular target(s) and type of modification, various cellular effects are induced (cell death, homeostasis modification, cytoskeleton alteration, blockade of exocytosis, etc.). The various modes of action of bacterial protein toxins are illustrated with representative examples. Insights in toxin evolution are discussed.

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Horizontal Transfer of Microbial Toxin Genes to Gall Midge Genomes

Cited by 10 publications

References 89 publications

Evolution in small steps and giant leaps

Evolution in small steps and giant leaps

Foreign Ribosome Inactivating Proteins as immune effectors in insects

Overview of Bacterial Protein Toxins from Pathogenic Bacteria: Mode of Action and Insights into Evolution

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