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Increased Pathogenicity of the Nematophagous Fungus Drechmeria coniospora Following Long-Term Laboratory Culture

Domestication provides a window into adaptive change. Over the course of 2 decades of laboratory culture, a strain of the nematode-specific fungus Drechmeria coniospora became more virulent during its infection of Caenorhabditis elegans. Through a close comparative examination of the genome sequence...

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Autores principales: Courtine, Damien, Zhang, Xing, Ewbank, Jonathan J.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10512298/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37744153
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/ffunb.2021.778882
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author Courtine, Damien
Zhang, Xing
Ewbank, Jonathan J.
author_facet Courtine, Damien
Zhang, Xing
Ewbank, Jonathan J.
author_sort Courtine, Damien
collection PubMed
description Domestication provides a window into adaptive change. Over the course of 2 decades of laboratory culture, a strain of the nematode-specific fungus Drechmeria coniospora became more virulent during its infection of Caenorhabditis elegans. Through a close comparative examination of the genome sequences of the original strain and its more pathogenic derivative, we identified a small number of non-synonymous mutations in protein-coding genes. In one case, the mutation was predicted to affect a gene involved in hypoxia resistance and we provide direct corroborative evidence for such an effect. The mutated genes with functional annotation were all predicted to impact the general physiology of the fungus and this was reflected in an increased in vitro growth, even in the absence of C. elegans. While most cases involved single nucleotide substitutions predicted to lead to a loss of function, we also observed a predicted restoration of gene function through deletion of an extraneous tandem repeat. This latter change affected the regulatory subunit of a cAMP-dependent protein kinase. Remarkably, we also found a mutation in a gene for a second protein of the same, protein kinase A, pathway. Together, we predict that they result in a stronger repression of the pathway for given levels of ATP and adenylate cyclase activity. Finally, we also identified mutations in a few lineage-specific genes of unknown function that are candidates for factors that influence virulence in a more direct manner.
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spelling pubmed-105122982023-09-22 Increased Pathogenicity of the Nematophagous Fungus Drechmeria coniospora Following Long-Term Laboratory Culture Courtine, Damien Zhang, Xing Ewbank, Jonathan J. Front Fungal Biol Fungal Biology Domestication provides a window into adaptive change. Over the course of 2 decades of laboratory culture, a strain of the nematode-specific fungus Drechmeria coniospora became more virulent during its infection of Caenorhabditis elegans. Through a close comparative examination of the genome sequences of the original strain and its more pathogenic derivative, we identified a small number of non-synonymous mutations in protein-coding genes. In one case, the mutation was predicted to affect a gene involved in hypoxia resistance and we provide direct corroborative evidence for such an effect. The mutated genes with functional annotation were all predicted to impact the general physiology of the fungus and this was reflected in an increased in vitro growth, even in the absence of C. elegans. While most cases involved single nucleotide substitutions predicted to lead to a loss of function, we also observed a predicted restoration of gene function through deletion of an extraneous tandem repeat. This latter change affected the regulatory subunit of a cAMP-dependent protein kinase. Remarkably, we also found a mutation in a gene for a second protein of the same, protein kinase A, pathway. Together, we predict that they result in a stronger repression of the pathway for given levels of ATP and adenylate cyclase activity. Finally, we also identified mutations in a few lineage-specific genes of unknown function that are candidates for factors that influence virulence in a more direct manner. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-12-16 /pmc/articles/PMC10512298/ /pubmed/37744153 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/ffunb.2021.778882 Text en Copyright © 2021 Courtine, Zhang and Ewbank. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Fungal Biology
Courtine, Damien
Zhang, Xing
Ewbank, Jonathan J.
Increased Pathogenicity of the Nematophagous Fungus Drechmeria coniospora Following Long-Term Laboratory Culture
title Increased Pathogenicity of the Nematophagous Fungus Drechmeria coniospora Following Long-Term Laboratory Culture
title_full Increased Pathogenicity of the Nematophagous Fungus Drechmeria coniospora Following Long-Term Laboratory Culture
title_fullStr Increased Pathogenicity of the Nematophagous Fungus Drechmeria coniospora Following Long-Term Laboratory Culture
title_full_unstemmed Increased Pathogenicity of the Nematophagous Fungus Drechmeria coniospora Following Long-Term Laboratory Culture
title_short Increased Pathogenicity of the Nematophagous Fungus Drechmeria coniospora Following Long-Term Laboratory Culture
title_sort increased pathogenicity of the nematophagous fungus drechmeria coniospora following long-term laboratory culture
topic Fungal Biology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10512298/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37744153
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/ffunb.2021.778882
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