Horizontally transferred fungal carotenoid genes in the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae
Horizontally transferred fungal carotenoid genes in the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae
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DOI：
10.1098/rsbl.2011.0704
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发表时间：
2012-04-23
期刊：
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Gerardo, Nicole M.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Altincicek, Boran;Kovacs, Jennifer L.;Gerardo, Nicole M.
类胡萝卜素是一种有机色素，通常由植物、藻类和一些微生物合成。通过吸收光能，类胡萝卜素促进光合作用并提供防止光氧化的保护。虽然人们认为动物体内的所有类胡萝卜素都是从它们的饮食中分离出来的，但最近的研究表明，蚜虫含有功能性类胡萝卜素生物合成基因的基因组拷贝，这些基因是通过真菌的水平基因转移获得的。我们对现有动物转录本的搜索显示，在荨麻疹叶螨双斑蛛螨中存在两个相关基因。系统发育分析表明，荨麻疹锥虫基因从真菌转移到蜘蛛螨基因组中，可能与最近提出的蚜虫相似。这些基因在绿色和红色变体中都有表达，红色变体表现出更高水平的基因表达。此外，这些基因在滞育期间的表达似乎也发生了变化。由于类胡萝卜素与这些动物的滞育诱导有关，我们的研究结果进一步强调了真核水平基因转移在高等动物生态学和进化中的重要性。
Carotenoids are organic pigments commonly synthesized by plants, algae and some microorganisms. Through absorption of light energy, carotenoids facilitate photosynthesis and provide protection against photo-oxidation. While it was presumed that all carotenoids in animals were sequestered from their diets, aphids were recently shown to harbour genomic copies of functional carotenoid biosynthesis genes that were acquired via horizontal gene transfer from fungi. Our search of available animal transcripts revealed the presence of two related genes in the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychus urticae. Phylogenetic analyses suggest that the T. urticae genes were transferred from fungi into the spider mite genome, probably in a similar manner as recently suggested for aphids. The genes are expressed in both green and red morphs, with red morphs exhibiting higher levels of gene expression. Additionally, there appear to be changes in the expression of these genes during diapause. As carotenoids are associated with diapause induction in these animals, our results add to recent findings highlighting the importance of eukaryotic horizontal gene transfer in the ecology and evolution of higher animals.