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Cranz-Mileva S, Reilly E, Chalhoub N, Patel R, Atanassova T, Cao W, Ellison C, Zaratiegui M. Transposon Removal Reveals Their Adaptive Fitness Contribution. Genome Biol Evol 2024; 16:evae010. [PMID: 38245838 PMCID: PMC10836971 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evae010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/15/2023] [Revised: 01/04/2024] [Accepted: 01/12/2024] [Indexed: 01/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Transposable elements are molecular parasites that persist in their host genome by generating new copies to outpace natural selection. Transposable elements exert a large influence on host genome evolution, in some cases providing adaptive changes. Here we measure the fitness effect of the transposable element insertions in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe type strain by removing all insertions of its only native transposable element family, the long terminal repeat retrotransposon Tf2. We show that Tf2 elements provide a positive fitness contribution to its host. Tf2 ablation results in changes to the regulation of a mitochondrial gene and, consistently, the fitness effect are sensitive to growth conditions. We propose that Tf2 influences host fitness in a directed manner by dynamically rewiring the transcriptional response to metabolic stress.
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Affiliation(s)
- Susanne Cranz-Mileva
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Eve Reilly
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Noor Chalhoub
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Rohan Patel
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Tania Atanassova
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Weihuan Cao
- Department of Genetics, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Christopher Ellison
- Department of Genetics, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA
| | - Mikel Zaratiegui
- Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, Piscataway, NJ, USA
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