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Microsporidia: Horizontal gene transfers in vicious parasites
Microsporidia are obligate intracellular parasites whose genomes have been shaped by an extreme lifestyle. Specifically, their obligate intracellular parasitism has resulted in the loss of many genes and biochemical pathways, but these reductive processes have been often offset by the acquisition of...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Landes Bioscience
2011
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3337132/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22545234 http://dx.doi.org/10.4161/mge.18611 |
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author | Selman, Mohammed Corradi, Nicolas |
author_facet | Selman, Mohammed Corradi, Nicolas |
author_sort | Selman, Mohammed |
collection | PubMed |
description | Microsporidia are obligate intracellular parasites whose genomes have been shaped by an extreme lifestyle. Specifically, their obligate intracellular parasitism has resulted in the loss of many genes and biochemical pathways, but these reductive processes have been often offset by the acquisition of several genes by means of horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Until recently, these HGTs were all found to have derived from prokaryotic donors, but a recent study suggests that some species took advantage of this mechanism to acquire one gene from an animal, which they maintained in their genome for metabolic purposes. The gene encodes for a purine nucleoside phosphorylase, and shows a strong phylogenetic signal of arthropod origin. Here, we briefly review our current knowledge of HGTs discovered across microsporidian genomes and discuss the implications of the most recent findings in this research area for understanding the origin and evolution of this highly adapted group of intracellular parasites. A novel gene potentially transferred by means of HGT to one microsporidia is also reported. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3337132 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2011 |
publisher | Landes Bioscience |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-33371322012-05-07 Microsporidia: Horizontal gene transfers in vicious parasites Selman, Mohammed Corradi, Nicolas Mob Genet Elements Letter to the Editor Microsporidia are obligate intracellular parasites whose genomes have been shaped by an extreme lifestyle. Specifically, their obligate intracellular parasitism has resulted in the loss of many genes and biochemical pathways, but these reductive processes have been often offset by the acquisition of several genes by means of horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Until recently, these HGTs were all found to have derived from prokaryotic donors, but a recent study suggests that some species took advantage of this mechanism to acquire one gene from an animal, which they maintained in their genome for metabolic purposes. The gene encodes for a purine nucleoside phosphorylase, and shows a strong phylogenetic signal of arthropod origin. Here, we briefly review our current knowledge of HGTs discovered across microsporidian genomes and discuss the implications of the most recent findings in this research area for understanding the origin and evolution of this highly adapted group of intracellular parasites. A novel gene potentially transferred by means of HGT to one microsporidia is also reported. Landes Bioscience 2011-11-01 /pmc/articles/PMC3337132/ /pubmed/22545234 http://dx.doi.org/10.4161/mge.18611 Text en Copyright © 2011 Landes Bioscience http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ This is an open-access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. The article may be redistributed, reproduced, and reused for non-commercial purposes, provided the original source is properly cited. |
spellingShingle | Letter to the Editor Selman, Mohammed Corradi, Nicolas Microsporidia: Horizontal gene transfers in vicious parasites |
title | Microsporidia: Horizontal gene transfers in vicious parasites |
title_full | Microsporidia: Horizontal gene transfers in vicious parasites |
title_fullStr | Microsporidia: Horizontal gene transfers in vicious parasites |
title_full_unstemmed | Microsporidia: Horizontal gene transfers in vicious parasites |
title_short | Microsporidia: Horizontal gene transfers in vicious parasites |
title_sort | microsporidia: horizontal gene transfers in vicious parasites |
topic | Letter to the Editor |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3337132/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22545234 http://dx.doi.org/10.4161/mge.18611 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT selmanmohammed microsporidiahorizontalgenetransfersinviciousparasites AT corradinicolas microsporidiahorizontalgenetransfersinviciousparasites |