Horizontal gene transfer as a source of evolutionary innovation in metazoans

项目总结 水平基因转移在真核生物进化中的作用仍然是近年来争论最激烈的话题之一。 进化生物学。虽然关于真核生物大规模水平转移的几种说法在 近年来，蜈蚣总科的轮虫，其8%-10%的基因来自非后生动物来源， 仍然是唯一经得起审查的后生动物分类群。我们的工作证实了它的存在 细菌起源的表观遗传修饰的非规范系统的功能，能够引入 细菌修饰标记成真核DNA。此外，我们还鉴定了可能存在的外源基因 在扩大的次生代谢系统中作为多样化的潜在来源。最后，有了 干燥不再被认为是决定粘虫异常捕获能力的主要原因 外来遗传物质，我们正在研究新型的巨型转座元件，它们可能具有 参与了基因转移。这些调查将继续进行，并结合起来，以揭露 在这个特殊的后生动物分类群中，外来基因获取和多样化的复杂进化史， 为了更好地理解在大多数真核生物分类群中阻止这种获取的障碍是如何偶尔 在后生动物生命树的精选树枝上破碎。 好了！

PROJECT SUMMARY The role of horizontal gene transfer in eukaryotic evolution remains one of the most hotly debated topics in evolutionary biology. While several claims of massive horizontal transfer in eukaryotes have been disproven in recent years, rotifers of the class Bdelloidea, with 8-10% of their genes coming from non-metazoan sources, remain the only metazoan taxon that withstands the scrutiny. Our work has confirmed the presence and functionality of a non-canonical system of epigenetic modification of bacterial origin, capable of introducing bacterial modification marks into eukaryotic DNA. Further, we identified genes of foreign origin that may serve as potential sources of diversification in the expanded system of secondary metabolism. Finally, with desiccation no longer suspected as the leading reason defining the unusual ability of bdelloids to capture foreign genetic material, we are investigating novel types of giant transposable elements that may have participated in gene transfer. These lines of investigation will be pursued and combined to uncover the complex evolutionary history of foreign gene acquisition and diversification in this exceptional metazoan taxon, and to better understand how the barriers preventing such acquisition in most eukaryotic taxa can occasionally be broken in selected branches of the metazoan tree of life. !