Genus-level evolutionary relationships of FAR proteins reflect the diversity of lifestyles of free-living and parasitic nematodes

BACKGROUND: Nematodes are a widespread and diverse group comprising free-living and parasitic species, some of which have major detrimental effects on crops, animals, and human health. Genomic comparisons of nematodes may help reveal the genetic bases for the evolution of parasitic lifestyles. Fatty acid and retinol-binding proteins (FARs) are thought to be unique to nematodes and play essential roles in their development, reproduction, infection, and possibly parasitism through promoting the uptake, transport, and distribution of lipid and retinol. However, the evolution of FAR family proteins across the phylum Nematoda remains elusive. RESULTS: We report here the evolutionary relationship of the FAR gene family across nematodes. No FAR was found in Trichocephalida species and Romanomermis culicivorax from Clade I, and FAR could be found in species from Clades III, IV, and V. FAR proteins are conserved in Clade III species and separated into three clusters. Tandem duplications and high divergence events lead to variable richness and low homology of FARs in Steinernema of Clade IVa, Strongyloides of Clade IVb, and intestinal parasitic nematodes from Clades Vc and Ve. Moreover, different richness and sequence variations of FARs in pine wood, root-knot, stem, and cyst nematodes might be determined by reproduction mode or parasitism. However, murine lungworm Angiostrongylus and bovine lungworm Dictyocaulus viviparus from Clade Vd have only 3–4 orthologs of FAR. RNA-seq data showed that far genes, especially far-1 and far-2, were highly expressed in most nematodes. Angiostrongylus cantonensis FAR-1 and FAR-3 have low sequence homology and distinct ligand-binding properties, leading to differences in the cavity volume of proteins. These data indicate that FAR proteins diverged early and experienced low selective pressure to form genus-level diversity. The far genes are present in endophyte or root-colonized bacteria of Streptomyces, Kitasatospora sp., Bacillus subtilis, and Lysobacter, suggesting that bacterial far genes might be derived from plant-parasitic nematodes by horizontal gene transfer. CONCLUSIONS: Data from these comparative analyses have provided insights into genus-level diversity of FAR proteins in the phylum Nematoda. FAR diversification provides a glimpse into the complicated evolution history across free-living and parasitic nematodes. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12915-021-01111-3.