Skip to main content
ARS Home » Midwest Area » Peoria, Illinois » National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research » Mycotoxin Prevention and Applied Microbiology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #359876
Title: Vertical inheritance, gene loss, horizontal gene transfer and the content of secondary metabolite biosynthetic genes in the Fusarium incarnatum-equiseti species complex

Author
item VILLANI, ALESSANDRA - National Research Council - Italy
item Proctor, Robert
item Kim, Hye-Seon
item Brown, Daren
item AMATULLI, TERESA - Thales Alenia Space
item LOGRIECO, ANTONIO - National Research Council - Italy
item MORETTI, ANTONIO - National Research Council - Italy
item SUSCA, ANTONIA - National Research Council - Italy

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/17/2019
Publication Date: 3/17/2019
Citation: Villani, A., Proctor, R., Kim, H.-S., Brown, D.W., Amatulli, T., Logrieco, A.F., Moretti, A., Susca, A. 2019. Vertical inheritance, gene loss, horizontal gene transfer and the content of secondary metabolite biosynthetic genes in the Fusarium incarnatum-equiseti species complex [abstract].

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Genome sequence analyses have revealed the existence of tremendous variation in the content of secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters among filamentous fungi. Multiple studies suggest that vertical inheritance, gene loss, and horizontal gene transfer (HGT) are major contributors to such variation. However, the frequency with which each process has contributed to the variation remains unclear. To address this issue, we investigated variation in secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene content in the Fusarium incarnatum-equiseti species complex (FIESC), a lineage of closely related species in the agriculturally important genus Fusarium. Initially, we used antiSMASH and BLAST to identify secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters that are present in the genome sequences of 13 members of FIESC. To assess how often vertical inheritance, gene loss and HGT have contributed to cluster content, we did a series of phylogenetic analyses (e.g., approximately unbiased test, synonymous site divergence, NOTUNG) with homologs of 21 polyketide synthase and 18 non-ribosomal peptide synthetase genes from genomes sequences of the FIESC members and 24 other Fusarium species. The results of the analyses suggest that: 1) vertical inheritance has contributed to the distribution of all FIESC clusters; 2) gene loss has contributed to distribution of 21 clusters; and 3) HGT has contributed to distribution of three clusters. The results suggest that HGT has also contributed to distribution of nine additional clusters, but the results from all analyses were not consistent. NOTUNG suggested that multiple distribution patterns were affected by gene duplication, but results from other analyses were not consistent this conclusion. These finding suggest that a complex interplay of evolutionary processes contribute to variation in content of secondary metabolite gene clusters among fungi and, therefore, to variation in ability to produce secondary metabolites.