Sidestepping Darwin: horizontal gene transfer from plants to insects

Gilbert, Clément; Maumus, Florian

doi:10.1016/j.cois.2023.101035

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 79 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Pezizomycotina and other eukaryotic groups have been found to exhibit a high frequency of HGT events. For instance, the presence of genes from diverse kingdoms has been observed in plants [23][24][25], arthropods [26][27][28][29], and plant-parasitic nematodes [30][31][32]. However, caution must be exercised when reporting cases of HGT in eukaryotic lineages due to potential biases in database representation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Database Bias in the Detection of Interdomain Horizontal Gene Transfer Events in Pezizomycotina

Aguirre-Carvajal,

Munteanu,

Armijos-Jaramillo

2024

Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a widely acknowledged phenomenon in prokaryotes for generating genetic diversity. However, the impact of this process in eukaryotes, particularly interdomain HGT, is a topic of debate. Although there have been observed biases in interdomain HGT detection, little exploration has been conducted on the effects of imbalanced databases. In our study, we conducted experiments to assess how different databases affect the detection of interdomain HGT using proteomes from the Pezizomycotina fungal subphylum as our focus group. Our objective was to simulate the database imbalance commonly found in public biological databases, where bacterial and eukaryotic sequences are unevenly represented, and demonstrate that an increase in uploaded eukaryotic sequences leads to a decrease in predicted HGTs. For our experiments, four databases with varying proportions of eukaryotic sequences but consistent proportions of bacterial sequences were utilized. We observed a significant reduction in detected interdomain HGT candidates as the proportion of eukaryotes increased within the database. Our data suggest that the imbalance in databases bias the interdomain HGT detection and highlights challenges associated with confirming the presence of interdomain HGT among Pezizomycotina fungi and potentially other groups within Eukarya.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Database Bias in the Detection of Interdomain Horizontal Gene Transfer Events in Pezizomycotina

Aguirre-Carvajal,

Munteanu,

Armijos-Jaramillo

2024

Biology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…It is increasingly evident that this uncommon evolutionary route has occurred quite frequently in whiteflies. [ 14 , 21 ] Our phylogenetic analysis revealed that the BtFAD2 gene family and other Aleyrodinae FAD2 genes are distantly related to other functional insect Δ12 desaturase genes (Figure 1C ). The results further show that all the examined Aleyrodinae species have acquired plant‐derived FAD2 genes, strongly indicating that they might be present in all Aleyrodinae species (Figure 1C ) and that the transfer of FAD2 most likely occurred in the whitefly ancestor before the divergence of B. tabaci and T. vaporariorum (> 86 MYA) (Figure 2E ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Horizontally Transferred Plant Fatty Acid Desaturase Gene Steers Whitefly Reproduction

Gong,

Guo,

et al. 2023

Advanced Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are essential nutrients for all living organisms. PUFA synthesis is mediated by Δ12 desaturases in plants and microorganisms, whereas animals usually obtain PUFAs through their diet. The whitefly Bemisia tabaci is an extremely polyphagous agricultural pest that feeds on phloem sap of many plants that do not always provide them with sufficient PUFAs. Here, a plant‐derived Δ12 desaturase gene family BtFAD2 is characterized in B. tabaci and it shows that the BtFAD2‐9 gene enables the pest to synthesize PUFAs, thereby significantly enhancing its fecundity. The role of BtFAD2‐9 in reproduction is further confirmed by transferring the gene to Drosophila melanogaster, which also increases the fruit fly's reproduction. These findings reveal an extraordinary evolutionary scenario whereby a phytophagous insect acquired a family of plant genes that enables it to synthesize essential nutrients, thereby lessening its nutritional dependency and allowing it to feed and reproduce on many host plants.

show abstract

Editorial overview: From -omics to insight: Applying modern technology to studies of nonmodel insect evolution and diversification

DeSalle,

Oppenheim

2024

Current Opinion in Insect Science

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Sidestepping Darwin: horizontal gene transfer from plants to insects

Cited by 8 publications

References 79 publications

Database Bias in the Detection of Interdomain Horizontal Gene Transfer Events in Pezizomycotina

Database Bias in the Detection of Interdomain Horizontal Gene Transfer Events in Pezizomycotina

A Horizontally Transferred Plant Fatty Acid Desaturase Gene Steers Whitefly Reproduction

Editorial overview: From -omics to insight: Applying modern technology to studies of nonmodel insect evolution and diversification

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About