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Xiao C, Mo F, Lu Y, Xiao Q, Yao C, Li T, Qi J, Liu X, Chen JY, Zhang L, Guo T, Hu B, An NA, Li CY. Reply to: Identification of old coding regions disproves the hominoid de novo status of genes. Nat Ecol Evol 2024:10.1038/s41559-024-02515-4. [PMID: 39187608 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-024-02515-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2023] [Accepted: 07/23/2024] [Indexed: 08/28/2024]
Affiliation(s)
- Chunfu Xiao
- State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine, College of Future Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Fan Mo
- State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, Institute for Stem Cell and Regeneration, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Yingfei Lu
- State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, Institute for Stem Cell and Regeneration, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Qi Xiao
- Westlake Center for Intelligent Proteomics, Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, China
- School of Medicine, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Chao Yao
- State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine, College of Future Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Ting Li
- State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine, College of Future Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Jianhuan Qi
- State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, Institute for Stem Cell and Regeneration, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xiaoge Liu
- State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine, College of Future Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Jia-Yu Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Chemistry and Biomedicine Innovation Center, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
| | - Li Zhang
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China
| | - Tiannan Guo
- Westlake Center for Intelligent Proteomics, Westlake Laboratory of Life Sciences and Biomedicine, Hangzhou, China
- School of Medicine, School of Life Sciences, Westlake University, Hangzhou, China
| | - Baoyang Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, Institute for Stem Cell and Regeneration, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
| | - Ni A An
- State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine, College of Future Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
| | - Chuan-Yun Li
- State Key Laboratory of Protein and Plant Gene Research, Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine, College of Future Technology, Peking University, Beijing, China.
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China.
- Southwest United Graduate School, Kunming, China.
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2
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Vara C, Montañés JC, Albà MM. High Polymorphism Levels of De Novo ORFs in a Yoruba Human Population. Genome Biol Evol 2024; 16:evae126. [PMID: 38934859 PMCID: PMC11221430 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evae126] [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: 02/13/2024] [Revised: 05/08/2024] [Accepted: 06/01/2024] [Indexed: 06/28/2024] Open
Abstract
During evolution, new open reading frames (ORFs) with the potential to give rise to novel proteins continuously emerge. A recent compilation of noncanonical ORFs with translation signatures in humans has identified thousands of cases with a putative de novo origin. However, it is not known which is their distribution in the population. Are they universally translated? Here, we use ribosome profiling data from 65 lymphoblastoid cell lines from individuals of Yoruba origin to investigate this question. We identify 2,587 de novo ORFs translated in at least one of the cell lines. In line with their de novo origin, the encoded proteins tend to be smaller than 100 amino acids and encode positively charged proteins. We observe that the de novo ORFs are more polymorphic in the population than the set of canonical proteins, with a substantial fraction of them being translated in only some of the cell lines. Remarkably, this difference remains significant after controlling for differences in the translation levels. These results suggest that variations in the level translation of de novo ORFs could be a relevant source of intraspecies phenotypic diversity in humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Covadonga Vara
- Research Programme on Biomedical Informatics (GRIB),Hospital del Mar Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain
| | - José Carlos Montañés
- Research Programme on Biomedical Informatics (GRIB),Hospital del Mar Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain
| | - M Mar Albà
- Research Programme on Biomedical Informatics (GRIB),Hospital del Mar Research Institute, Barcelona, Spain
- Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
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3
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Zhao Q, Zheng Y, Li Y, Shi L, Zhang J, Ma D, You M. An Orphan Gene Enhances Male Reproductive Success in Plutella xylostella. Mol Biol Evol 2024; 41:msae142. [PMID: 38990889 PMCID: PMC11290247 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msae142] [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: 11/24/2023] [Revised: 06/28/2024] [Accepted: 07/05/2024] [Indexed: 07/13/2024] Open
Abstract
Plutella xylostella exhibits exceptional reproduction ability, yet the genetic basis underlying the high reproductive capacity remains unknown. Here, we demonstrate that an orphan gene, lushu, which encodes a sperm protein, plays a crucial role in male reproductive success. Lushu is located on the Z chromosome and is prevalent across different P. xylostella populations worldwide. We subsequently generated lushu mutants using transgenic CRISPR/Cas9 system. Knockout of Lushu results in reduced male mating efficiency and accelerated death in adult males. Furthermore, our findings highlight that the deficiency of lushu reduced the transfer of sperms from males to females, potentially resulting in hindered sperm competition. Additionally, the knockout of Lushu results in disrupted gene expression in energy-related pathways and elevated insulin levels in adult males. Our findings reveal that male reproductive performance has evolved through the birth of a newly evolved, lineage-specific gene with enormous potentiality in fecundity success. These insights hold valuable implications for identifying the target for genetic control, particularly in relation to species-specific traits that are pivotal in determining high levels of fecundity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qian Zhao
- State Key Laboratory for Ecological Pest Control of Fujian/Taiwan Crops and College of Life Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
- Ministerial and Provincial Joint Innovation Centre for Safety Production of Cross-Strait Crops, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
- Joint International Research Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control, Ministry of Education, Fuzhou 350002, China
| | - Yahong Zheng
- State Key Laboratory for Ecological Pest Control of Fujian/Taiwan Crops and College of Life Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
| | - Yiying Li
- State Key Laboratory for Ecological Pest Control of Fujian/Taiwan Crops and College of Life Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
| | - Lingping Shi
- State Key Laboratory for Ecological Pest Control of Fujian/Taiwan Crops and College of Life Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
| | - Jing Zhang
- State Key Laboratory for Ecological Pest Control of Fujian/Taiwan Crops and College of Life Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
- Ministerial and Provincial Joint Innovation Centre for Safety Production of Cross-Strait Crops, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
- Joint International Research Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control, Ministry of Education, Fuzhou 350002, China
| | - Dongna Ma
- State Key Laboratory for Ecological Pest Control of Fujian/Taiwan Crops and College of Life Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
| | - Minsheng You
- State Key Laboratory for Ecological Pest Control of Fujian/Taiwan Crops and College of Life Science, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
- Ministerial and Provincial Joint Innovation Centre for Safety Production of Cross-Strait Crops, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China
- Joint International Research Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control, Ministry of Education, Fuzhou 350002, China
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4
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Sanejouand YH. Are Most Human-Specific Proteins Encoded by Long Noncoding RNAs? J Mol Evol 2024:10.1007/s00239-024-10174-z. [PMID: 38916610 DOI: 10.1007/s00239-024-10174-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2023] [Accepted: 05/03/2024] [Indexed: 06/26/2024]
Abstract
By looking for a lack of homologs in a reference database of 27 well-annotated proteomes of primates and 52 well-annotated proteomes of other mammals, 170 putative human-specific proteins were identified. While most of them are deemed uncertain, 2 are known at the protein level and 23 at the transcript level, according to UniProt. Interestingly, 23 of these 25 proteins are found to be encoded or to have close homologs in an open reading frame of a long noncoding human RNA. However, half of them are predicted to be at least 80% globular, with a single structural domain, according to IUPred, and with at least 80% of ordered residues, according to flDPnn. Strikingly, there is a near-complete lack of structural knowledge about these proteins, with no tertiary structure presently available in the Protein Data Bank and a fair prediction for one of them in the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database. Moreover, knowledge about the function of these possibly key proteins remains scarce.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yves-Henri Sanejouand
- US2B, UMR 6286 of CNRS, Nantes University, 2 rue de la Houssinière, Nantes, 44322, Pays de la Loire, France.
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5
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Fakhar AZ, Liu J, Pajerowska-Mukhtar KM, Mukhtar MS. The ORFans' tale: new insights in plant biology. TRENDS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2023; 28:1379-1390. [PMID: 37453923 DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2023.06.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/10/2022] [Revised: 05/17/2023] [Accepted: 06/19/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023]
Abstract
Orphan genes (OGs) are protein-coding genes without a significant sequence similarity in closely related species. Despite their functional importance, very little is known about the underlying molecular mechanisms by which OGs participate in diverse biological processes. Here, we discuss the evolutionary mechanisms of OGs' emergence with relevance to species-specific adaptations. We also provide a mechanistic view of the involvement of OGs in multiple processes, including growth, development, reproduction, and carbon-metabolism-mediated immunity. We highlight the interconnection between OGs and the sucrose nonfermenting 1 (SNF1)-related protein kinases (SnRKs)-target of rapamycin (TOR) signaling axis for phytohormone signaling, nutrient metabolism, and stress responses. Finally, we propose a high-throughput pipeline for OGs' interspecies and intraspecies gene transfer through a transgenic approach for future biotechnological advances.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ali Zeeshan Fakhar
- Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1300 University Blvd., Birmingham, AL 35294, USA
| | - Jinbao Liu
- Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1300 University Blvd., Birmingham, AL 35294, USA
| | | | - M Shahid Mukhtar
- Department of Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham, 1300 University Blvd., Birmingham, AL 35294, USA.
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6
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Wang Z, Wang YW, Kasuga T, Hassler H, Lopez-Giraldez F, Dong C, Yarden O, Townsend JP. Origins of lineage-specific elements via gene duplication, relocation, and regional rearrangement in Neurospora crassa. Mol Ecol 2023. [PMID: 37843462 DOI: 10.1111/mec.17168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2023] [Revised: 09/20/2023] [Accepted: 09/27/2023] [Indexed: 10/17/2023]
Abstract
The origin of new genes has long been a central interest of evolutionary biologists. However, their novelty means that they evade reconstruction by the classical tools of evolutionary modelling. This evasion of deep ancestral investigation necessitates intensive study of model species within well-sampled, recently diversified, clades. One such clade is the model genus Neurospora, members of which lack recent gene duplications. Several Neurospora species are comprehensively characterized organisms apt for studying the evolution of lineage-specific genes (LSGs). Using gene synteny, we documented that 78% of Neurospora LSG clusters are located adjacent to the telomeres featuring extensive tracts of non-coding DNA and duplicated genes. Here, we report several instances of LSGs that are likely from regional rearrangements and potentially from gene rebirth. To broadly investigate the functions of LSGs, we assembled transcriptomics data from 68 experimental data points and identified co-regulatory modules using Weighted Gene Correlation Network Analysis, revealing that LSGs are widely but peripherally involved in known regulatory machinery for diverse functions. The ancestral status of the LSG mas-1, a gene with roles in cell-wall integrity and cellular sensitivity to antifungal toxins, was investigated in detail alongside its genomic neighbours, indicating that it arose from an ancient lysophospholipase precursor that is ubiquitous in lineages of the Sordariomycetes. Our discoveries illuminate a "rummage region" in the N. crassa genome that enables the formation of new genes and functions to arise via gene duplication and relocation, followed by fast mutation and recombination facilitated by sequence repeats and unconstrained non-coding sequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zheng Wang
- Department of Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | - Yen-Wen Wang
- Department of Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | - Takao Kasuga
- College of Biological Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, California, USA
| | - Hayley Hassler
- Department of Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | | | - Caihong Dong
- Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Oded Yarden
- Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Jeffrey P Townsend
- Department of Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Program in Microbiology, and Program in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
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7
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Sanejouand YH. On the Unknown Proteins of Eukaryotic Proteomes. J Mol Evol 2023:10.1007/s00239-023-10116-1. [PMID: 37219573 DOI: 10.1007/s00239-023-10116-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2022] [Accepted: 05/07/2023] [Indexed: 05/24/2023]
Abstract
To study unknown proteins on a large scale, a reference system has been set up for the three better studied eukaryotic kingdoms, built with 36 proteomes as taxonomically diverse as possible. Proteins from 362 other eukaryotic proteomes with no known homologue in this set were then analyzed, focusing noteworthy on singletons, that is, on such proteins with no known homologue in their own proteome. Consistently, for a given species, no more than 12% of the singletons thus found are known at the protein level, according to Uniprot. In addition, since they rely on the information found in the alignment of homologous sequences, predictions of AlphaFold2 for their tridimensional structure are poor. In the case of metazoan species, the number of singletons rarely exceeds 1000 for the species the closest to the reference system (divergence times below 75 Myr). Interestingly, in the cases of viridiplantae and fungi, larger amounts of singletons are found for such species, as if the timescale on which singletons are added to proteomes were different in metazoa and in other eukaryotic kingdoms. In order to confirm this phenomenon, further studies of proteomes closer to those of the reference system are, however, needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yves-Henri Sanejouand
- US2B, UMR 6286 of CNRS, Nantes University, rue de la Houssinière, 44322, Nantes, France.
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8
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Liu J, Yuan R, Shao W, Wang J, Silman I, Sussman JL. Do "Newly Born" orphan proteins resemble "Never Born" proteins? A study using three deep learning algorithms. Proteins 2023. [PMID: 37092778 DOI: 10.1002/prot.26496] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2022] [Revised: 02/26/2023] [Accepted: 04/01/2023] [Indexed: 04/25/2023]
Abstract
"Newly Born" proteins, devoid of detectable homology to any other proteins, known as orphan proteins, occur in a single species or within a taxonomically restricted gene family. They are generated by the expression of novel open reading frames, and appear throughout evolution. We were curious if three recently developed programs for predicting protein structures, namely, AlphaFold2, RoseTTAFold, and ESMFold, might be of value for comparison of such "Newly Born" proteins to random polypeptides with amino acid content similar to that of native proteins, which have been called "Never Born" proteins. The programs were used to compare the structures of two sets of "Never Born" proteins that had been expressed-Group 1, which had been shown experimentally to possess substantial secondary structure, and Group 3, which had been shown to be intrinsically disordered. Overall, although the models generated were scored as being of low quality, they nevertheless revealed some general principles. Specifically, all four members of Group 1 were predicted to be compact by all three algorithms, in agreement with the experimental data, whereas the members of Group 3 were predicted to be very extended, as would be expected for intrinsically disordered proteins, again consistent with the experimental data. These predicted differences were shown to be statistically significant by comparing their accessible surface areas. The three programs were then used to predict the structures of three orphan proteins whose crystal structures had been solved, two of which display novel folds. Surprisingly, only for the protein which did not have a novel fold, and was taxonomically restricted, rather than being a true orphan, did all three algorithms predict very similar, high-quality structures, closely resembling the crystal structure. Finally, they were used to predict the structures of seven orphan proteins with well-identified biological functions, whose 3D structures are not known. Two proteins, which were predicted to be disordered based on their sequences, are predicted by all three structure algorithms to be extended structures. The other five were predicted to be compact structures with only two exceptions in the case of AlphaFold2. All three prediction algorithms make remarkably similar and high-quality predictions for one large protein, HCO_11565, from a nematode. It is conjectured that this is due to many homologs in the taxonomically restricted family of which it is a member, and to the fact that the Dali server revealed several nonrelated proteins with similar folds. An animated Interactive 3D Complement (I3DC) is available in Proteopedia at http://proteopedia.org/w/Journal:Proteins:3.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Liu
- Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Guangdong Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Shantou, China
- Faculty of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel
| | - Rongqing Yuan
- Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Wei Shao
- School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China
| | - Jitong Wang
- Department of Chemistry, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Israel Silman
- Department of Brain Sciences, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
| | - Joel L Sussman
- Department of Chemical and Structural Biology, The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
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9
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Evolution and implications of de novo genes in humans. Nat Ecol Evol 2023:10.1038/s41559-023-02014-y. [PMID: 36928843 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02014-y] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 18.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/24/2022] [Accepted: 02/06/2023] [Indexed: 03/18/2023]
Abstract
Genes and translated open reading frames (ORFs) that emerged de novo from previously non-coding sequences provide species with opportunities for adaptation. When aberrantly activated, some human-specific de novo genes and ORFs have disease-promoting properties-for instance, driving tumour growth. Thousands of putative de novo coding sequences have been described in humans, but we still do not know what fraction of those ORFs has readily acquired a function. Here, we discuss the challenges and controversies surrounding the detection, mechanisms of origin, annotation, validation and characterization of de novo genes and ORFs. Through manual curation of literature and databases, we provide a thorough table with most de novo genes reported for humans to date. We re-evaluate each locus by tracing the enabling mutations and list proposed disease associations, protein characteristics and supporting evidence for translation and protein detection. This work will support future explorations of de novo genes and ORFs in humans.
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10
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Poretti M, Praz CR, Sotiropoulos AG, Wicker T. A survey of lineage-specific genes in Triticeae reveals de novo gene evolution from genomic raw material. PLANT DIRECT 2023; 7:e484. [PMID: 36937792 PMCID: PMC10020141 DOI: 10.1002/pld3.484] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2022] [Revised: 01/26/2023] [Accepted: 01/27/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Diploid plant genomes typically contain ~35,000 genes, almost all belonging to highly conserved gene families. Only a small fraction are lineage-specific, which are found in only one or few closely related species. Little is known about how genes arise de novo in plant genomes and how often this occurs; however, they are believed to be important for plants diversification and adaptation. We developed a pipeline to identify lineage-specific genes in Triticeae, using newly available genome assemblies of wheat, barley, and rye. Applying a set of stringent criteria, we identified 5942 candidate Triticeae-specific genes (TSGs), of which 2337 were validated as protein-coding genes in wheat. Differential gene expression analyses revealed that stress-induced wheat TSGs are strongly enriched in putative secreted proteins. Some were previously described to be involved in Triticeae non-host resistance and cold response. Additionally, we show that 1079 TSGs have sequence homology to transposable elements (TEs), ~68% of them deriving from regulatory non-coding regions of Gypsy retrotransposons. Most importantly, we demonstrate that these TSGs are enriched in transmembrane domains and are among the most highly expressed wheat genes overall. To summarize, we conclude that de novo gene formation is relatively rare and that Triticeae probably possess ~779 lineage-specific genes per haploid genome. TSGs, which respond to pathogen and environmental stresses, may be interesting candidates for future targeted resistance breeding in Triticeae. Finally, we propose that non-coding regions of TEs might provide important genetic raw material for the functional innovation of TM domains and the evolution of novel secreted proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Manuel Poretti
- Department of Plant and Microbial BiologyUniversity of ZurichZurichSwitzerland
- Department of BiologyUniversity of FribourgFribourgSwitzerland
| | - Coraline R. Praz
- Department of Plant and Microbial BiologyUniversity of ZurichZurichSwitzerland
- Centro de Biotecnología y Genómica de PlantasUniversidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM)–Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA)MadridSpain
| | | | - Thomas Wicker
- Department of Plant and Microbial BiologyUniversity of ZurichZurichSwitzerland
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11
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An NA, Zhang J, Mo F, Luan X, Tian L, Shen QS, Li X, Li C, Zhou F, Zhang B, Ji M, Qi J, Zhou WZ, Ding W, Chen JY, Yu J, Zhang L, Shu S, Hu B, Li CY. De novo genes with an lncRNA origin encode unique human brain developmental functionality. Nat Ecol Evol 2023; 7:264-278. [PMID: 36593289 PMCID: PMC9911349 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01925-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/26/2021] [Accepted: 10/04/2022] [Indexed: 01/03/2023]
Abstract
Human de novo genes can originate from neutral long non-coding RNA (lncRNA) loci and are evolutionarily significant in general, yet how and why this all-or-nothing transition to functionality happens remains unclear. Here, in 74 human/hominoid-specific de novo genes, we identified distinctive U1 elements and RNA splice-related sequences accounting for RNA nuclear export, differentiating mRNAs from lncRNAs, and driving the origin of de novo genes from lncRNA loci. The polymorphic sites facilitating the lncRNA-mRNA conversion through regulating nuclear export are selectively constrained, maintaining a boundary that differentiates mRNAs from lncRNAs. The functional new genes actively passing through it thus showed a mode of pre-adaptive origin, in that they acquire functions along with the achievement of their coding potential. As a proof of concept, we verified the regulations of splicing and U1 recognition on the nuclear export efficiency of one of these genes, the ENSG00000205704, in human neural progenitor cells. Notably, knock-out or over-expression of this gene in human embryonic stem cells accelerates or delays the neuronal maturation of cortical organoids, respectively. The transgenic mice with ectopically expressed ENSG00000205704 showed enlarged brains with cortical expansion. We thus demonstrate the key roles of nuclear export in de novo gene origin. These newly originated genes should reflect the novel uniqueness of human brain development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ni A An
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Jie Zhang
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Fan Mo
- State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, Institute of Stem Cell and Regeneration, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Xuke Luan
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Lu Tian
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Qing Sunny Shen
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Xiangshang Li
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Chunqiong Li
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China
| | - Fanqi Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Key Laboratory of RNA Regulation and Hematopoiesis, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, School of Basic Medicine, CAMS and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Boya Zhang
- State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, Institute of Stem Cell and Regeneration, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Mingjun Ji
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Jianhuan Qi
- State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, Institute of Stem Cell and Regeneration, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Wei-Zhen Zhou
- State Key Laboratory of Cardiovascular Disease, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Wanqiu Ding
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University, Beijing, China
| | - Jia-Yu Chen
- State Key Laboratory of Pharmaceutical Biotechnology, School of Life Sciences, Chemistry and Biomedicine Innovation Center (ChemBIC), Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
| | - Jia Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Medical Molecular Biology, Key Laboratory of RNA Regulation and Hematopoiesis, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, School of Basic Medicine, CAMS and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China
| | - Li Zhang
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China
| | - Shaokun Shu
- Peking University International Cancer Institute, Beijing, China
| | - Baoyang Hu
- State Key Laboratory of Stem Cell and Reproductive Biology, Institute of Stem Cell and Regeneration, Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
- University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
| | - Chuan-Yun Li
- Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Genomic Medicine, Institute of Molecular Medicine, Peking University, Beijing, China.
- Chinese Institute for Brain Research, Beijing, China.
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12
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Sruthi KB, Menon A, P A, Vasudevan Soniya E. Pervasive translation of small open reading frames in plant long non-coding RNAs. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2022; 13:975938. [PMID: 36352887 PMCID: PMC9638090 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.975938] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/22/2022] [Accepted: 09/29/2022] [Indexed: 06/16/2023]
Abstract
Long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) are primarily recognized as non-coding transcripts longer than 200 nucleotides with low coding potential and are present in both eukaryotes and prokaryotes. Recent findings reveal that lncRNAs can code for micropeptides in various species. Micropeptides are generated from small open reading frames (smORFs) and have been discovered frequently in short mRNAs and non-coding RNAs, such as lncRNAs, circular RNAs, and pri-miRNAs. The most accepted definition of a smORF is an ORF containing fewer than 100 codons, and ribosome profiling and mass spectrometry are the most prevalent experimental techniques used to identify them. Although the majority of micropeptides perform critical roles throughout plant developmental processes and stress conditions, only a handful of their functions have been verified to date. Even though more research is being directed toward identifying micropeptides, there is still a dearth of information regarding these peptides in plants. This review outlines the lncRNA-encoded peptides, the evolutionary roles of such peptides in plants, and the techniques used to identify them. It also describes the functions of the pri-miRNA and circRNA-encoded peptides that have been identified in plants.
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13
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Etchegaray E, Baas D, Naville M, Haftek-Terreau Z, Volff JN. The neurodevelopmental gene MSANTD2 belongs to a gene family formed by recurrent molecular domestication of Harbinger transposons at the base of vertebrates. Mol Biol Evol 2022; 39:msac173. [PMID: 35980103 PMCID: PMC9392472 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msac173] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2022] [Revised: 07/06/2022] [Accepted: 08/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
The formation of new genes is a major source of organism evolutionary innovation. Beyond their mutational effects, transposable elements can be co-opted by host genomes to form different types of sequences including novel genes, through a mechanism named molecular domestication.We report the formation of four genes through molecular domestication of Harbinger transposons, three in a common ancestor of jawed vertebrates about 500 million years ago and one in sarcopterygians approx. 430 million years ago. Additionally, one processed pseudogene arose approx. 60 million years ago in simians. In zebrafish, Harbinger-derived genes are expressed during early development but also in adult tissues, and predominantly co-expressed in male brain. In human, expression was detected in multiple organs, with major expression in the brain particularly during fetal development. We used CRISPR/Cas9 with direct gene knock-out in the F0 generation and the morpholino antisense oligonucleotide knock-down technique to study in zebrafish the function of one of these genes called MSANTD2, which has been suggested to be associated to neuro-developmental diseases such as autism spectrum disorders and schizophrenia in human. MSANTD2 inactivation led to developmental delays including tail and nervous system malformation at one day post fertilization. Affected embryos showed dead cell accumulation, major anatomical defects characterized by impaired brain ventricle formation and alterations in expression of some characteristic genes involved in vertebrate nervous system development. Hence, the characterization of MSANTD2 and other Harbinger-derived genes might contribute to a better understanding of the genetic innovations having driven the early evolution of the vertebrate nervous system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ema Etchegaray
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, UCBL1, CNRS UMR 5242, Lyon, France
| | - Dominique Baas
- Unité MeLiS, UCBL-CNRS UMR 5284, INSERM U1314, Lyon, France
| | - Magali Naville
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, UCBL1, CNRS UMR 5242, Lyon, France
| | - Zofia Haftek-Terreau
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, UCBL1, CNRS UMR 5242, Lyon, France
| | - Jean Nicolas Volff
- Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, UCBL1, CNRS UMR 5242, Lyon, France
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14
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Athanasouli M, Rödelsperger C. Analysis of repeat elements in the Pristionchus pacificus genome reveals an ancient invasion by horizontally transferred transposons. BMC Genomics 2022; 23:523. [PMID: 35854227 PMCID: PMC9297572 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-022-08731-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2022] [Accepted: 07/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Repetitive sequences and mobile elements make up considerable fractions of individual genomes. While transposition events can be detrimental for organismal fitness, repetitive sequences form an enormous reservoir for molecular innovation. In this study, we aim to add repetitive elements to the annotation of the Pristionchus pacificus genome and assess their impact on novel gene formation. RESULTS Different computational approaches define up to 24% of the P. pacificus genome as repetitive sequences. While retroelements are more frequently found at the chromosome arms, DNA transposons are distributed more evenly. We found multiple DNA transposons, as well as LTR and LINE elements with abundant evidence of expression as single-exon transcripts. When testing whether transposons disproportionately contribute towards new gene formation, we found that roughly 10-20% of genes across all age classes overlap transposable elements with the strongest trend being an enrichment of low complexity regions among the oldest genes. Finally, we characterized a horizontal gene transfer of Zisupton elements into diplogastrid nematodes. These DNA transposons invaded nematodes from eukaryotic donor species and experienced a recent burst of activity in the P. pacificus lineage. CONCLUSIONS The comprehensive annotation of repetitive elements in the P. pacificus genome builds a resource for future functional genomic analyses as well as for more detailed investigations of molecular innovations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marina Athanasouli
- Max Planck Institute for Biology, Department for Integrative Evolutionary Biology, Max-Planck-Ring 9, 72076, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Christian Rödelsperger
- Max Planck Institute for Biology, Department for Integrative Evolutionary Biology, Max-Planck-Ring 9, 72076, Tübingen, Germany.
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15
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Jiang M, Li X, Dong X, Zu Y, Zhan Z, Piao Z, Lang H. Research Advances and Prospects of Orphan Genes in Plants. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2022; 13:947129. [PMID: 35874010 PMCID: PMC9305701 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.947129] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/18/2022] [Accepted: 06/23/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Orphan genes (OGs) are defined as genes having no sequence similarity with genes present in other lineages. OGs have been regarded to play a key role in the development of lineage-specific adaptations and can also serve as a constant source of evolutionary novelty. These genes have often been found related to various stress responses, species-specific traits, special expression regulation, and also participate in primary substance metabolism. The advancement in sequencing tools and genome analysis methods has made the identification and characterization of OGs comparatively easier. In the study of OG functions in plants, significant progress has been made. We review recent advances in the fast evolving characteristics, expression modulation, and functional analysis of OGs with a focus on their role in plant biology. We also emphasize current challenges, adoptable strategies and discuss possible future directions of functional study of OGs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Mingliang Jiang
- School of Agriculture, Jilin Agricultural Science and Technology College, Jilin, China
| | - Xiaonan Li
- College of Horticulture, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, China
| | - Xiangshu Dong
- School of Agriculture, Yunnan University, Kunming, China
| | - Ye Zu
- College of Horticulture, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, China
| | - Zongxiang Zhan
- College of Horticulture, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, China
| | - Zhongyun Piao
- College of Horticulture, Shenyang Agricultural University, Shenyang, China
| | - Hong Lang
- School of Agriculture, Jilin Agricultural Science and Technology College, Jilin, China
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16
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Cardoso-Silva CB, Aono AH, Mancini MC, Sforça DA, da Silva CC, Pinto LR, Adams KL, de Souza AP. Taxonomically Restricted Genes Are Associated With Responses to Biotic and Abiotic Stresses in Sugarcane ( Saccharum spp.). FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2022; 13:923069. [PMID: 35845637 PMCID: PMC9280035 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.923069] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/18/2022] [Accepted: 06/13/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Orphan genes (OGs) are protein-coding genes that are restricted to particular clades or species and lack homology with genes from other organisms, making their biological functions difficult to predict. OGs can rapidly originate and become functional; consequently, they may support rapid adaptation to environmental changes. Extensive spread of mobile elements and whole-genome duplication occurred in the Saccharum group, which may have contributed to the origin and diversification of OGs in the sugarcane genome. Here, we identified and characterized OGs in sugarcane, examined their expression profiles across tissues and genotypes, and investigated their regulation under varying conditions. We identified 319 OGs in the Saccharum spontaneum genome without detected homology to protein-coding genes in green plants, except those belonging to Saccharinae. Transcriptomic analysis revealed 288 sugarcane OGs with detectable expression levels in at least one tissue or genotype. We observed similar expression patterns of OGs in sugarcane genotypes originating from the closest geographical locations. We also observed tissue-specific expression of some OGs, possibly indicating a complex regulatory process for maintaining diverse functional activity of these genes across sugarcane tissues and genotypes. Sixty-six OGs were differentially expressed under stress conditions, especially cold and osmotic stresses. Gene co-expression network and functional enrichment analyses suggested that sugarcane OGs are involved in several biological mechanisms, including stimulus response and defence mechanisms. These findings provide a valuable genomic resource for sugarcane researchers, especially those interested in selecting stress-responsive genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cláudio Benício Cardoso-Silva
- Center of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering (CBMEG), University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil
- Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Alexandre Hild Aono
- Center of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering (CBMEG), University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil
| | - Melina Cristina Mancini
- Center of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering (CBMEG), University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil
| | - Danilo Augusto Sforça
- Center of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering (CBMEG), University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil
| | - Carla Cristina da Silva
- Center of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering (CBMEG), University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil
- Agronomy Department, Federal University of Viçosa (UFV), Viçosa, Brazil
| | - Luciana Rossini Pinto
- Sugarcane Research Advanced Centre, Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC/APTA), Ribeirão Preto, Brazil
| | - Keith L. Adams
- Department of Botany, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada
| | - Anete Pereira de Souza
- Center of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering (CBMEG), University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil
- Institute of Biology, University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Campinas, Brazil
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17
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Suenaga Y, Kato M, Nagai M, Nakatani K, Kogashi H, Kobatake M, Makino T. Open reading frame dominance indicates protein‐coding potential of RNAs. EMBO Rep 2022; 23:e54321. [PMID: 35438231 PMCID: PMC9171421 DOI: 10.15252/embr.202154321] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2021] [Revised: 03/24/2022] [Accepted: 03/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Recent studies have identified numerous RNAs with both coding and noncoding functions. However, the sequence characteristics that determine this bifunctionality remain largely unknown. In the present study, we develop and test the open reading frame (ORF) dominance score, which we define as the fraction of the longest ORF in the sum of all putative ORF lengths. This score correlates with translation efficiency in coding transcripts and with translation of noncoding RNAs. In bacteria and archaea, coding and noncoding transcripts have narrow distributions of high and low ORF dominance, respectively, whereas those of eukaryotes show relatively broader ORF dominance distributions, with considerable overlap between coding and noncoding transcripts. The extent of overlap positively and negatively correlates with the mutation rate of genomes and the effective population size of species, respectively. Tissue‐specific transcripts show higher ORF dominance than ubiquitously expressed transcripts, and the majority of tissue‐specific transcripts are expressed in mature testes. These data suggest that the decrease in population size and the emergence of testes in eukaryotic organisms allowed for the evolution of potentially bifunctional RNAs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yusuke Suenaga
- Department of Molecular Carcinogenesis Chiba Cancer Centre Research Institute Chiba Japan
| | - Mamoru Kato
- Division of Bioinformatics National Cancer Centre Research Institute Tokyo Japan
| | - Momoko Nagai
- Division of Bioinformatics National Cancer Centre Research Institute Tokyo Japan
| | - Kazuma Nakatani
- Department of Molecular Carcinogenesis Chiba Cancer Centre Research Institute Chiba Japan
- Department of Molecular Biology and Oncology Chiba University School of Medicine Chiba Japan
- Innovative Medicine CHIBA Doctoral WISE Program Chiba University School of Medicine Chiba Japan
| | - Hiroyuki Kogashi
- Department of Molecular Carcinogenesis Chiba Cancer Centre Research Institute Chiba Japan
- Department of Molecular Biology and Oncology Chiba University School of Medicine Chiba Japan
| | - Miho Kobatake
- Department of Molecular Carcinogenesis Chiba Cancer Centre Research Institute Chiba Japan
| | - Takashi Makino
- Laboratory of Evolutionary Genomics Graduate School of Life Sciences Tohoku University Sendai Japan
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18
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Maltseva AL, Lobov AA, Pavlova PA, Panova M, Gafarova ER, Marques JP, Danilov LG, Granovitch AI. Orphan gene in Littorina: An unexpected role of symbionts in the host evolution. Gene 2022; 824:146389. [PMID: 35257790 DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2022.146389] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/07/2021] [Revised: 01/29/2022] [Accepted: 02/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
Mechanisms of reproductive isolation between closely related sympatric species are of high evolutionary significance as they may function as initial drivers of speciation and protect species integrity afterwards. Proteins involved in the establishment of reproductive barriers often evolve fast and may be key players in cessation of gene flow between the incipient species. The five Atlantic Littorina (Neritrema) species represent a notable example of recent radiation. The geographic ranges of these young species largely overlap and the mechanisms of reproductive isolation are poorly understood. In this study, we performed a detailed analysis of the reproductive protein LOSP, previously identified in Littorina. We showed that this protein is evolutionary young and taxonomically restricted to the genus Littorina. It has high sequence variation both within and between Littorina species, which is compatible with its presumable role in the reproductive isolation. The strongest differences in the LOSP structure were detected between Littorina subgenera with distinctive repetitive motifs present exclusively in the Neritrema species, but not in L. littorea. Moreover, the sequence of these repetitive structural elements demonstrates a high homology with genetic elements of bacteria, identified as components of Littorina associated microbiomes. We suggest that these elements were acquired from a symbiotic bacterial donor via horizontal genetic transfer (HGT), which is indirectly confirmed by the presence of multiple transposable elements in the LOSP flanking and intronic regions. Furthermore, we hypothesize that this HGT-driven evolutionary innovation promoted LOSP function in reproductive isolation, which might be one of the factors determining the intensive cladogenesis in the Littorina (Neritrema) lineage in contrast to the anagenesis in the L. littorea clade.
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Affiliation(s)
- A L Maltseva
- Department of Invertebrate Zoology, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, Russia.
| | - A A Lobov
- Department of Invertebrate Zoology, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, Russia; Laboratory of Regenerative Biomedicine, Institute of Cytology Russian Academy of Sciences, St Petersburg, Russia
| | - P A Pavlova
- Department of Invertebrate Zoology, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, Russia
| | - M Panova
- Department of Invertebrate Zoology, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, Russia; Department of Marine Sciences - Tjärnö, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
| | - E R Gafarova
- Department of Invertebrate Zoology, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, Russia
| | - J P Marques
- CIBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, InBIO Laboratório Associado, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal; Departamento de Biologia, Faculdade de Ciências do Porto, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal; ISEM, Univ Montpellier, CNRS, EPHE, IRD, 34095 Montpellier, France
| | - L G Danilov
- Department of Genetics and Biotechnology, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, Russia
| | - A I Granovitch
- Department of Invertebrate Zoology, St Petersburg State University, St Petersburg, Russia
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19
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Chesnokova E, Beletskiy A, Kolosov P. The Role of Transposable Elements of the Human Genome in Neuronal Function and Pathology. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:5847. [PMID: 35628657 PMCID: PMC9148063 DOI: 10.3390/ijms23105847] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/29/2022] [Revised: 05/17/2022] [Accepted: 05/19/2022] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Transposable elements (TEs) have been extensively studied for decades. In recent years, the introduction of whole-genome and whole-transcriptome approaches, as well as single-cell resolution techniques, provided a breakthrough that uncovered TE involvement in host gene expression regulation underlying multiple normal and pathological processes. Of particular interest is increased TE activity in neuronal tissue, and specifically in the hippocampus, that was repeatedly demonstrated in multiple experiments. On the other hand, numerous neuropathologies are associated with TE dysregulation. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of literature about the role of TEs in neurons published over the last three decades. The first chapter of the present review describes known mechanisms of TE interaction with host genomes in general, with the focus on mammalian and human TEs; the second chapter provides examples of TE exaptation in normal neuronal tissue, including TE involvement in neuronal differentiation and plasticity; and the last chapter lists TE-related neuropathologies. We sought to provide specific molecular mechanisms of TE involvement in neuron-specific processes whenever possible; however, in many cases, only phenomenological reports were available. This underscores the importance of further studies in this area.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ekaterina Chesnokova
- Laboratory of Cellular Neurobiology of Learning, Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 117485 Moscow, Russia; (A.B.); (P.K.)
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20
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Ma D, Lai Z, Ding Q, Zhang K, Chang K, Li S, Zhao Z, Zhong F. Identification, Characterization and Function of Orphan Genes Among the Current Cucurbitaceae Genomes. FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE 2022; 13:872137. [PMID: 35599909 PMCID: PMC9114813 DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.872137] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/09/2022] [Accepted: 03/28/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Orphan genes (OGs) that are missing identifiable homologs in other lineages may potentially make contributions to a variety of biological functions. The Cucurbitaceae family consists of a wide range of fruit crops of worldwide or local economic significance. To date, very few functional mechanisms of OGs in Cucurbitaceae are known. In this study, we systematically identified the OGs of eight Cucurbitaceae species using a comparative genomics approach. The content of OGs varied widely among the eight Cucurbitaceae species, ranging from 1.63% in chayote to 16.55% in wax gourd. Genetic structure analysis showed that OGs have significantly shorter protein lengths and fewer exons in Cucurbitaceae. The subcellular localizations of OGs were basically the same, with only subtle differences. Except for aggregation in some chromosomal regions, the distribution density of OGs was higher near the telomeres and relatively evenly distributed on the chromosomes. Gene expression analysis revealed that OGs had less abundantly and highly tissue-specific expression. Interestingly, the largest proportion of these OGs was significantly more tissue-specific expressed in the flower than in other tissues, and more detectable expression was found in the male flower. Functional prediction of OGs showed that (1) 18 OGs associated with male sterility in watermelon; (2) 182 OGs associated with flower development in cucumber; (3) 51 OGs associated with environmental adaptation in watermelon; (4) 520 OGs may help with the large fruit size in wax gourd. Our results provide the molecular basis and research direction for some important mechanisms in Cucurbitaceae species and domesticated crops.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dongna Ma
- College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fujian, China
- College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Fujian, China
| | - Zhengfeng Lai
- Subtropical Agricultural Research Institute, Fujian Academy of Agriculture Sciences, Fujian, China
| | - Qiansu Ding
- College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Fujian, China
| | - Kun Zhang
- College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fujian, China
| | - Kaizhen Chang
- College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fujian, China
| | - Shuhao Li
- College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fujian, China
| | - Zhizhu Zhao
- College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Fujian, China
| | - Fenglin Zhong
- College of Horticulture, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fujian, China
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21
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New Genomic Signals Underlying the Emergence of Human Proto-Genes. Genes (Basel) 2022; 13:genes13020284. [PMID: 35205330 PMCID: PMC8871994 DOI: 10.3390/genes13020284] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2021] [Revised: 01/20/2022] [Accepted: 01/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/04/2022] Open
Abstract
De novo genes are novel genes which emerge from non-coding DNA. Until now, little is known about de novo genes’ properties, correlated to their age and mechanisms of emergence. In this study, we investigate four related properties: introns, upstream regulatory motifs, 5′ Untranslated regions (UTRs) and protein domains, in 23,135 human proto-genes. We found that proto-genes contain introns, whose number and position correlates with the genomic position of proto-gene emergence. The origin of these introns is debated, as our results suggest that 41% of proto-genes might have captured existing introns, and 13.7% of them do not splice the ORF. We show that proto-genes which emerged via overprinting tend to be more enriched in core promotor motifs, while intergenic and intronic genes are more enriched in enhancers, even if the TATA motif is most commonly found upstream in these genes. Intergenic and intronic 5′ UTRs of proto-genes have a lower potential to stabilise mRNA structures than exonic proto-genes and established human genes. Finally, we confirm that proteins expressed by proto-genes gain new putative domains with age. Overall, we find that regulatory motifs inducing transcription and translation of previously non-coding sequences may facilitate proto-gene emergence. Our study demonstrates that introns, 5′ UTRs, and domains have specific properties in proto-genes. We also emphasize that the genomic positions of de novo genes strongly impacts these properties.
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22
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Cherezov RO, Vorontsova JE, Simonova OB. The Phenomenon of Evolutionary “De Novo Generation” of Genes. Russ J Dev Biol 2021. [DOI: 10.1134/s1062360421060035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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23
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Zhao Z, Ma D. Genome-Wide Identification, Characterization and Function Analysis of Lineage-Specific Genes in the Tea Plant Camellia sinensis. Front Genet 2021; 12:770570. [PMID: 34858483 PMCID: PMC8631334 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2021.770570] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/04/2021] [Accepted: 10/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022] Open
Abstract
Genes that have no homologous sequences with other species are called lineage-specific genes (LSGs), are common in living organisms, and have an important role in the generation of new functions, adaptive evolution and phenotypic alteration of species. Camellia sinensis var. sinensis (CSS) is one of the most widely distributed cultivars for quality green tea production. The rich catechins in tea have antioxidant, free radical elimination, fat loss and cancer prevention potential. To further understand the evolution and utilize the function of LSGs in tea, we performed a comparative genomics approach to identify Camellia-specific genes (CSGs). Our result reveals that 1701 CSGs were identified specific to CSS, accounting for 3.37% of all protein-coding genes. The majority of CSGs (57.08%) were generated by gene duplication, and the time of duplication occurrence coincide with the time of two genome-wide replication (WGD) events that happened in CSS genome. Gene structure analysis revealed that CSGs have shorter gene lengths, fewer exons, higher GC content and higher isoelectric point. Gene expression analysis showed that CSG had more tissue-specific expression compared to evolutionary conserved genes (ECs). Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) showed that 18 CSGs are mainly associated with catechin synthesis-related pathways, including phenylalanine biosynthesis, biosynthesis of amino acids, pentose phosphate pathway, photosynthesis and carbon metabolism. Besides, we found that the expression of three CSGs (CSS0030246, CSS0002298, and CSS0030939) was significantly down-regulated in response to both types of stresses (salt and drought). Our study first systematically identified LSGs in CSS, and comprehensively analyzed the features and potential functions of CSGs. We also identified key candidate genes, which will provide valuable assistance for further studies on catechin synthesis and provide a molecular basis for the excavation of excellent germplasm resources.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhizhu Zhao
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
| | - Dongna Ma
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, China
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24
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Jin G, Ma PF, Wu X, Gu L, Long M, Zhang C, Li DZ. New Genes Interacted with Recent Whole Genome Duplicates in the Fast Stem Growth of Bamboos. Mol Biol Evol 2021; 38:5752-5768. [PMID: 34581782 PMCID: PMC8662795 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab288] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
As drivers of evolutionary innovations, new genes allow organisms to explore new niches. However, clear examples of this process remain scarce. Bamboos, the unique grass lineage diversifying into the forest, have evolved with a key innovation of fast growth of woody stem, reaching up to 1 m/day. Here, we identify 1,622 bamboo-specific orphan genes that appeared in recent 46 million years, and 19 of them evolved from noncoding ancestral sequences with entire de novo origination process reconstructed. The new genes evolved gradually in exon−intron structure, protein length, expression specificity, and evolutionary constraint. These new genes, whether or not from de novo origination, are dominantly expressed in the rapidly developing shoots, and make transcriptomes of shoots the youngest among various bamboo tissues, rather than reproductive tissue in other plants. Additionally, the particularity of bamboo shoots has also been shaped by recent whole-genome duplicates (WGDs), which evolved divergent expression patterns from ancestral states. New genes and WGDs have been evolutionarily recruited into coexpression networks to underline fast-growing trait of bamboo shoot. Our study highlights the importance of interactions between new genes and genome duplicates in generating morphological innovation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guihua Jin
- Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650201, China
| | - Peng-Fei Ma
- Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650201, China
| | - Xiaopei Wu
- Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650201, China
| | - Lianfeng Gu
- Basic Forestry and Proteomics Research Center, College of Forestry, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, Fujian, 350002, China
| | - Manyuan Long
- Department of Ecology and Evolution, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, 60637, USA
| | - Chengjun Zhang
- Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650201, China
| | - De-Zhu Li
- Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, Yunnan, 650201, China
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25
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Yates TB, Feng K, Zhang J, Singan V, Jawdy SS, Ranjan P, Abraham PE, Barry K, Lipzen A, Pan C, Schmutz J, Chen JG, Tuskan GA, Muchero W. The Ancient Salicoid Genome Duplication Event: A Platform for Reconstruction of De Novo Gene Evolution in Populus trichocarpa. Genome Biol Evol 2021; 13:evab198. [PMID: 34469536 PMCID: PMC8445398 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evab198] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 08/22/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Orphan genes are characteristic genomic features that have no detectable homology to genes in any other species and represent an important attribute of genome evolution as sources of novel genetic functions. Here, we identified 445 genes specific to Populus trichocarpa. Of these, we performed deeper reconstruction of 13 orphan genes to provide evidence of de novo gene evolution. Populus and its sister genera Salix are particularly well suited for the study of orphan gene evolution because of the Salicoid whole-genome duplication event which resulted in highly syntenic sister chromosomal segments across the Salicaceae. We leveraged this genomic feature to reconstruct de novo gene evolution from intergenera, interspecies, and intragenomic perspectives by comparing the syntenic regions within the P. trichocarpa reference, then P. deltoides, and finally Salix purpurea. Furthermore, we demonstrated that 86.5% of the putative orphan genes had evidence of transcription. Additionally, we also utilized the Populus genome-wide association mapping panel, a collection of 1,084 undomesticated P. trichocarpa genotypes to further determine putative regulatory networks of orphan genes using expression quantitative trait loci (eQTL) mapping. Functional enrichment of these eQTL subnetworks identified common biological themes associated with orphan genes such as response to stress and defense response. We also identify a putative cis-element for a de novo gene and leverage conserved synteny to describe evolution of a putative transcription factor binding site. Overall, 45% of orphan genes were captured in trans-eQTL networks.
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Affiliation(s)
- Timothy B Yates
- Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
| | - Kai Feng
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
| | - Jin Zhang
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
| | - Vasanth Singan
- U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Sara S Jawdy
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
| | - Priya Ranjan
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
| | - Paul E Abraham
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
| | - Kerrie Barry
- U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Anna Lipzen
- U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA
| | - Chongle Pan
- School of Computer Science and Department of Microbiology and Plant Biology, University of Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma, USA
| | - Jeremy Schmutz
- U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, USA
- HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology, Huntsville, Alabama, USA
| | - Jin-Gui Chen
- Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
| | - Gerald A Tuskan
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
| | - Wellington Muchero
- Bredesen Center for Interdisciplinary Research, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
- Biosciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
- Center for Bioenergy Innovation, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA
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26
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Li J, Singh U, Arendsee Z, Wurtele ES. Landscape of the Dark Transcriptome Revealed Through Re-mining Massive RNA-Seq Data. Front Genet 2021; 12:722981. [PMID: 34484307 PMCID: PMC8415361 DOI: 10.3389/fgene.2021.722981] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/09/2021] [Accepted: 07/26/2021] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
The "dark transcriptome" can be considered the multitude of sequences that are transcribed but not annotated as genes. We evaluated expression of 6,692 annotated genes and 29,354 unannotated open reading frames (ORFs) in the Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome across diverse environmental, genetic and developmental conditions (3,457 RNA-Seq samples). Over 30% of the highly transcribed ORFs have translation evidence. Phylostratigraphic analysis infers most of these transcribed ORFs would encode species-specific proteins ("orphan-ORFs"); hundreds have mean expression comparable to annotated genes. These data reveal unannotated ORFs most likely to be protein-coding genes. We partitioned a co-expression matrix by Markov Chain Clustering; the resultant clusters contain 2,468 orphan-ORFs. We provide the aggregated RNA-Seq yeast data with extensive metadata as a project in MetaOmGraph (MOG), a tool designed for interactive analysis and visualization. This approach enables reuse of public RNA-Seq data for exploratory discovery, providing a rich context for experimentalists to make novel, experimentally testable hypotheses about candidate genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jing Li
- Genetics and Genomics Graduate Program, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States
- Department of Genetics, Development, and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States
- Center for Metabolic Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States
| | - Urminder Singh
- Department of Genetics, Development, and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States
- Center for Metabolic Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States
- Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Program, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States
| | - Zebulun Arendsee
- Department of Genetics, Development, and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States
- Center for Metabolic Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States
- Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Program, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States
| | - Eve Syrkin Wurtele
- Genetics and Genomics Graduate Program, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States
- Department of Genetics, Development, and Cell Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States
- Center for Metabolic Biology, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States
- Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Program, Iowa State University, Ames, IA, United States
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27
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Ma D, Ding Q, Guo Z, Zhao Z, Wei L, Li Y, Song S, Zheng HL. Identification, characterization and expression analysis of lineage-specific genes within mangrove species Aegiceras corniculatum. Mol Genet Genomics 2021; 296:1235-1247. [PMID: 34363105 DOI: 10.1007/s00438-021-01810-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/06/2021] [Accepted: 07/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
Abstract
Lineage-specific genes (LSGs) are the genes that have no recognizable homology to any sequences in other species, which are important drivers for the generation of new functions, phenotypic changes, and facilitating species adaptation to environment. Aegiceras corniculatum is one of major mangrove plant species adapted to waterlogging and saline conditions, and the exploration of aegiceras-specific genes (ASGs) is important to reveal its adaptation to the harsh environment. Here, we performed a systematic analysis on ASGs, focusing on their sequence characterization, origination and expression patterns. Our results reveal that there are 4823 ASGs in the genome, approximately 11.84% of all protein-coding genes. High proportion (45.78%) of ASGs originate from gene duplication, and the time of gene duplication of ASGs is consistent with the timing of two genome-wide replication (WGD) events that occurred in A. corniculatum, and also coincides with a short period of global warming during the Paleocene-Eocene Maximum (PETM, 55.5 million years ago). Gene structure analysis showed that ASGs have shorter protein lengths, fewer exons, and higher isoelectric point. Expression patterns analysis showed that ASGs had low levels of expression and more tissue-specific expression. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) revealed that 86 ASGs co-expressed gene modules were primarily involved in pathways related to adversity stress, including plant hormone signal transduction, phenylpropanoid biosynthesis, photosynthesis, peroxisome and pentose phosphate pathway. This study provides a comprehensive analysis of the characteristics and potential functions of ASGs and identifies key candidate genes, which will contribute to the subsequent further investigation of the adaptation of A. corniculatum to intertidal coastal wetland habitats.
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Affiliation(s)
- Dongna Ma
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China
| | - Qiansu Ding
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China
| | - Zejun Guo
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China
| | - Zhizhu Zhao
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China
| | - Liufeng Wei
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China
| | - Yiying Li
- State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops, Institute of Applied Ecology, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, 350002, China
| | - Shiwei Song
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China
| | - Hai-Lei Zheng
- Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Coastal and Wetland Ecosystems, College of the Environment and Ecology, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361005, China.
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28
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Saint-Leandre B, Capy P, Hua-Van A, Filée J. piRNA and Transposon Dynamics in Drosophila: A Female Story. Genome Biol Evol 2021; 12:931-947. [PMID: 32396626 PMCID: PMC7337185 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evaa094] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 05/06/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The germlines of metazoans contain transposable elements (TEs) causing genetic instability and affecting fitness. To protect the germline from TE activity, gonads of metazoans produce TE-derived PIWI-interacting RNAs (piRNAs) that silence TE expression. In Drosophila, our understanding of piRNA biogenesis is mainly based on studies of the Drosophila melanogaster female germline. However, it is not known whether piRNA functions are also important in the male germline or whether and how piRNAs are affected by the global genomic context. To address these questions, we compared genome sequences, transcriptomes, and small RNA libraries extracted from entire testes and ovaries of two sister species: D. melanogaster and Drosophila simulans. We found that most TE-derived piRNAs were produced in ovaries and that piRNA pathway genes were strongly overexpressed in ovaries compared with testes, indicating that the silencing of TEs by the piRNA pathway mainly took place in the female germline. To study the relationship between host piRNAs and TE landscape, we analyzed TE genomic features and how they correlate with piRNA production in the two species. In D. melanogaster, we found that TE-derived piRNAs target recently active TEs. In contrast, although Drosophila simulans TEs do not display any features of recent activity, the host still intensively produced silencing piRNAs targeting old TE relics. Together, our results show that the piRNA silencing response mainly takes place in Drosophila ovaries and indicate that the host piRNA response is implemented following a burst of TE activity and could persist long after the extinction of active TE families.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bastien Saint-Leandre
- Laboratoire Evolution, Génomes, Comportement, Ecologie CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, IRD, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Pierre Capy
- Laboratoire Evolution, Génomes, Comportement, Ecologie CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, IRD, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Aurelie Hua-Van
- Laboratoire Evolution, Génomes, Comportement, Ecologie CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, IRD, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
| | - Jonathan Filée
- Laboratoire Evolution, Génomes, Comportement, Ecologie CNRS, Université Paris-Sud, IRD, Université Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
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29
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Gholizadeh Z, Iqbal MS, Li R, Romerio F. The HIV-1 Antisense Gene ASP: The New Kid on the Block. Vaccines (Basel) 2021; 9:vaccines9050513. [PMID: 34067514 PMCID: PMC8156140 DOI: 10.3390/vaccines9050513] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/20/2021] [Revised: 05/04/2021] [Accepted: 05/13/2021] [Indexed: 01/14/2023] Open
Abstract
Viruses have developed incredibly creative ways of making a virtue out of necessity, including taking full advantage of their small genomes. Indeed, viruses often encode multiple proteins within the same genomic region by using two or more reading frames in both orientations through a process called overprinting. Complex retroviruses provide compelling examples of that. The human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) genome expresses sixteen proteins from nine genes that are encoded in the three positive-sense reading frames. In addition, the genome of some HIV-1 strains contains a tenth gene in one of the negative-sense reading frames. The so-called Antisense Protein (ASP) gene overlaps the HIV-1 Rev Response Element (RRE) and the envelope glycoprotein gene, and encodes a highly hydrophobic protein of ~190 amino acids. Despite being identified over thirty years ago, relatively few studies have investigated the role that ASP may play in the virus lifecycle, and its expression in vivo is still questioned. Here we review the current knowledge about ASP, and we discuss some of the many unanswered questions.
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30
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Uncovering de novo gene birth in yeast using deep transcriptomics. Nat Commun 2021; 12:604. [PMID: 33504782 PMCID: PMC7841160 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-20911-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 36] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/17/2019] [Accepted: 01/04/2021] [Indexed: 01/30/2023] Open
Abstract
De novo gene origination has been recently established as an important mechanism for the formation of new genes. In organisms with a large genome, intergenic and intronic regions provide plenty of raw material for new transcriptional events to occur, but little is know about how de novo transcripts originate in more densely-packed genomes. Here, we identify 213 de novo originated transcripts in Saccharomyces cerevisiae using deep transcriptomics and genomic synteny information from multiple yeast species grown in two different conditions. We find that about half of the de novo transcripts are expressed from regions which already harbor other genes in the opposite orientation; these transcripts show similar expression changes in response to stress as their overlapping counterparts, and some appear to translate small proteins. Thus, a large fraction of de novo genes in yeast are likely to co-evolve with already existing genes.
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31
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Knopp M, Babina AM, Gudmundsdóttir JS, Douglass MV, Trent MS, Andersson DI. A novel type of colistin resistance genes selected from random sequence space. PLoS Genet 2021; 17:e1009227. [PMID: 33411736 PMCID: PMC7790251 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009227] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/10/2020] [Accepted: 10/27/2020] [Indexed: 11/29/2022] Open
Abstract
Antibiotic resistance is a rapidly increasing medical problem that severely limits the success of antibiotic treatments, and the identification of resistance determinants is key for surveillance and control of resistance dissemination. Horizontal transfer is the dominant mechanism for spread of resistance genes between bacteria but little is known about the original emergence of resistance genes. Here, we examined experimentally if random sequences can generate novel antibiotic resistance determinants de novo. By utilizing highly diverse expression libraries encoding random sequences to select for open reading frames that confer resistance to the last-resort antibiotic colistin in Escherichia coli, six de novocolistin resistance conferring peptides (Dcr) were identified. The peptides act via direct interactions with the sensor kinase PmrB (also termed BasS in E. coli), causing an activation of the PmrAB two-component system (TCS), modification of the lipid A domain of lipopolysaccharide and subsequent colistin resistance. This kinase-activation was extended to other TCS by generation of chimeric sensor kinases. Our results demonstrate that peptides with novel activities mediated via specific peptide-protein interactions in the transmembrane domain of a sensory transducer can be selected de novo, suggesting that the origination of such peptides from non-coding regions is conceivable. In addition, we identified a novel class of resistance determinants for a key antibiotic that is used as a last resort treatment for several significant pathogens. The high-level resistance provided at low expression levels, absence of significant growth defects and the functionality of Dcr peptides across different genera suggest that this class of peptides could potentially evolve as bona fide resistance determinants in natura. We expressed over 100 million randomly generated DNA sequences in Escherichia coli and selected 6 variants that encode peptides that provide resistance to the last-resort antibiotic colistin. We show that the selected peptides are auxiliary activators of the two-component system PmrAB, and that resistance is mediated via modifications of the cell envelope causing decreased antibiotic uptake. This is the first example where random expression libraries have been employed to select for peptides that perform an activating function by direct peptide-protein interactions in vivo, adding support to the idea that non-coding DNA can serve as a substrate for de novo gene evolution. Additionally, the described peptides expand the narrow list of colistin resistance genes and further analyses of clinical isolates will be necessary to determine if similar resistance determinants have evolved in natura.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Knopp
- Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Sweden
- European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Genome Biology Unit, Heidelberg, Germany
- * E-mail: (MK); (DIA)
| | - Arianne M. Babina
- Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Sweden
| | | | - Martin V. Douglass
- Department of Infectious Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Georgia, United States of America
| | - M. Stephen Trent
- Department of Infectious Diseases, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Georgia, Georgia, United States of America
- Department of Microbiology, Franklin College of Arts and Sciences, University of Georgia, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Dan I. Andersson
- Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, Sweden
- * E-mail: (MK); (DIA)
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32
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Etchegaray E, Naville M, Volff JN, Haftek-Terreau Z. Transposable element-derived sequences in vertebrate development. Mob DNA 2021; 12:1. [PMID: 33407840 PMCID: PMC7786948 DOI: 10.1186/s13100-020-00229-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 27] [Impact Index Per Article: 9.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2020] [Accepted: 12/15/2020] [Indexed: 12/14/2022] Open
Abstract
Transposable elements (TEs) are major components of all vertebrate genomes that can cause deleterious insertions and genomic instability. However, depending on the specific genomic context of their insertion site, TE sequences can sometimes get positively selected, leading to what are called "exaptation" events. TE sequence exaptation constitutes an important source of novelties for gene, genome and organism evolution, giving rise to new regulatory sequences, protein-coding exons/genes and non-coding RNAs, which can play various roles beneficial to the host. In this review, we focus on the development of vertebrates, which present many derived traits such as bones, adaptive immunity and a complex brain. We illustrate how TE-derived sequences have given rise to developmental innovations in vertebrates and how they thereby contributed to the evolutionary success of this lineage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ema Etchegaray
- Institut de Genomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, Univ Lyon, CNRS UMR 5242, Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 46 allee d'Italie, F-69364, Lyon, France.
| | - Magali Naville
- Institut de Genomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, Univ Lyon, CNRS UMR 5242, Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 46 allee d'Italie, F-69364, Lyon, France
| | - Jean-Nicolas Volff
- Institut de Genomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, Univ Lyon, CNRS UMR 5242, Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 46 allee d'Italie, F-69364, Lyon, France
| | - Zofia Haftek-Terreau
- Institut de Genomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon, Univ Lyon, CNRS UMR 5242, Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, Universite Claude Bernard Lyon 1, 46 allee d'Italie, F-69364, Lyon, France
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33
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Rödelsperger C, Ebbing A, Sharma DR, Okumura M, Sommer RJ, Korswagen HC. Spatial Transcriptomics of Nematodes Identifies Sperm Cells as a Source of Genomic Novelty and Rapid Evolution. Mol Biol Evol 2021; 38:229-243. [PMID: 32785688 PMCID: PMC8480184 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msaa207] [Citation(s) in RCA: 24] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Divergence of gene function and expression during development can give rise to phenotypic differences at the level of cells, tissues, organs, and ultimately whole organisms. To gain insights into the evolution of gene expression and novel genes at spatial resolution, we compared the spatially resolved transcriptomes of two distantly related nematodes, Caenorhabditis elegans and Pristionchus pacificus, that diverged 60-90 Ma. The spatial transcriptomes of adult worms show little evidence for strong conservation at the level of single genes. Instead, regional expression is largely driven by recent duplication and emergence of novel genes. Estimation of gene ages across anatomical structures revealed an enrichment of novel genes in sperm-related regions. This provides first evidence in nematodes for the "out of testis" hypothesis that has been previously postulated based on studies in Drosophila and mammals. "Out of testis" genes represent a mix of products of pervasive transcription as well as fast evolving members of ancient gene families. Strikingly, numerous novel genes have known functions during meiosis in Caenorhabditis elegans indicating that even universal processes such as meiosis may be targets of rapid evolution. Our study highlights the importance of novel genes in generating phenotypic diversity and explicitly characterizes gene origination in sperm-related regions. Furthermore, it proposes new functions for previously uncharacterized genes and establishes the spatial transcriptome of Pristionchus pacificus as a catalog for future studies on the evolution of gene expression and function.
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Affiliation(s)
- Christian Rödelsperger
- Department for Integrative Evolutionary Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Annabel Ebbing
- Hubrecht Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht,
The Netherlands
| | - Devansh Raj Sharma
- Department for Integrative Evolutionary Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Misako Okumura
- Program of Biomedical Science, Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life, Hiroshima University, Higashi-Hiroshima, Hiroshima, Japan
| | - Ralf J Sommer
- Department for Integrative Evolutionary Biology, Max Planck Institute for Developmental Biology, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Hendrik C Korswagen
- Hubrecht Institute, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences and University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht,
The Netherlands
- Developmental Biology, Department of Biology, Institute of Biodynamics and Biocomplexity, Utrecht University, Utrecht,
The Netherlands
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34
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Zile K, Dessimoz C, Wurm Y, Masel J. Only a Single Taxonomically Restricted Gene Family in the Drosophila melanogaster Subgroup Can Be Identified with High Confidence. Genome Biol Evol 2020; 12:1355-1366. [PMID: 32589737 PMCID: PMC8059200 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evaa127] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 06/19/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Taxonomically restricted genes (TRGs) are genes that are present only in one clade. Protein-coding TRGs may evolve de novo from previously noncoding sequences: functional ncRNA, introns, or alternative reading frames of older protein-coding genes, or intergenic sequences. A major challenge in studying de novo genes is the need to avoid both false-positives (nonfunctional open reading frames and/or functional genes that did not arise de novo) and false-negatives. Here, we search conservatively for high-confidence TRGs as the most promising candidates for experimental studies, ensuring functionality through conservation across at least two species, and ensuring de novo status through examination of homologous noncoding sequences. Our pipeline also avoids ascertainment biases associated with preconceptions of how de novo genes are born. We identify one TRG family that evolved de novo in the Drosophila melanogaster subgroup. This TRG family contains single-copy genes in Drosophila simulans and Drosophila sechellia. It originated in an intron of a well-established gene, sharing that intron with another well-established gene upstream. These TRGs contain an intron that predates their open reading frame. These genes have not been previously reported as de novo originated, and to our knowledge, they are the best Drosophila candidates identified so far for experimental studies aimed at elucidating the properties of de novo genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Karina Zile
- Division of Biosciences, University College London, United Kingdom
| | - Christophe Dessimoz
- Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Computational Biology, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
- Center for Integrative Genomics, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
- Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment, University College London, United Kingdom
- Department of Computer Science, University College London, United Kingdom
| | - Yannick Wurm
- School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary University of London, United Kingdom
- Alan Turing Institute, London, United Kingdom
| | - Joanna Masel
- Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona
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35
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Chen K, Tian Z, Chen P, He H, Jiang F, Long CA. Genome-wide identification, characterization and expression analysis of lineage-specific genes within Hanseniaspora yeasts. FEMS Microbiol Lett 2020; 367:5837084. [PMID: 32407480 DOI: 10.1093/femsle/fnaa077] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/27/2019] [Accepted: 05/12/2020] [Indexed: 12/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Lineage-specific genes (LSGs) are defined as genes with sequences that are not significantly similar to those in any other lineage. LSGs have been proposed, and sometimes shown, to have significant effects in the evolution of biological function. In this study, two sets of Hanseniaspora spp. LSGs were identified by comparing the sequences of the Kloeckera apiculata genome and of 80 other yeast genomes. This study identified 344 Hanseniaspora-specific genes (HSGs) and 109 genes ('orphan genes') specific to K. apiculata. Three thousand three hundred thirty-one K. apiculata genes that showed significant similarity to at least one sequence outside the Hanseniaspora were classified into evolutionarily conserved genes. We analyzed their sequence features, functional categories, gene origin, gene structure and gene expression. We also investigated the predicted cellular roles and Gene Ontology categories of the LSGs using functional inference. The patterns of the functions of LSGs do not deviate significantly from genome-wide average. The results showed that a few LSGs were formed by gene duplication, followed by rapid sequence divergence. Many of the HSGs and orphan genes exhibited altered expression in response to abiotic stress. Studying these LSGs might be helpful for understanding the molecular mechanism of yeast adaption.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kai Chen
- School of Biological Engineering and Food, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, China
| | - Zhonghuan Tian
- Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology of the Ministry of Education, National Centre of Citrus Breeding, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
| | - Ping Chen
- Department of Pediatric Hematology, Tongji Hospital Affiliated to Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430000, China
| | - Hua He
- School of Landscape Architecture and Horticulture, Wuhan Institute of Bioengineering, Wuhan 430415, China
| | - Fatang Jiang
- School of Biological Engineering and Food, Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan 430068, China
| | - Chao-An Long
- Key Laboratory of Horticultural Plant Biology of the Ministry of Education, National Centre of Citrus Breeding, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
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Hallin J, Cisneros AF, Hénault M, Fijarczyk A, Dandage R, Bautista C, Landry CR. Similarities in biological processes can be used to bridge ecology and molecular biology. Evol Appl 2020; 13:1335-1350. [PMID: 32684962 PMCID: PMC7359829 DOI: 10.1111/eva.12961] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2019] [Revised: 02/17/2020] [Accepted: 03/16/2020] [Indexed: 01/10/2023] Open
Abstract
Much of the research in biology aims to understand the origin of diversity. Naturally, ecological diversity was the first object of study, but we now have the necessary tools to probe diversity at molecular scales. The inherent differences in how we study diversity at different scales caused the disciplines of biology to be organized around these levels, from molecular biology to ecology. Here, we illustrate that there are key properties of each scale that emerge from the interactions of simpler components and that these properties are often shared across different levels of organization. This means that ideas from one level of organization can be an inspiration for novel hypotheses to study phenomena at another level. We illustrate this concept with examples of events at the molecular level that have analogs at the organismal or ecological level and vice versa. Through these examples, we illustrate that biological processes at different organization levels are governed by general rules. The study of the same phenomena at different scales could enrich our work through a multidisciplinary approach, which should be a staple in the training of future scientists.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johan Hallin
- Département de biochimie de microbiologie et de bio-informatique Faculté des sciences et de génie Université Laval Québec Canada.,Département de biologie Faculté des sciences et de génie Université Laval Québec Canada.,Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS) Université Laval Québec Canada.,PROTEO Le réseau québécois de recherche sur la fonction la structure et l'ingénierie des protéines Université Laval Québec Canada.,Centre de Recherche en Données Massives (CRDM) Université Laval Québec Canada
| | - Angel F Cisneros
- Département de biochimie de microbiologie et de bio-informatique Faculté des sciences et de génie Université Laval Québec Canada.,Département de biologie Faculté des sciences et de génie Université Laval Québec Canada.,Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS) Université Laval Québec Canada.,PROTEO Le réseau québécois de recherche sur la fonction la structure et l'ingénierie des protéines Université Laval Québec Canada.,Centre de Recherche en Données Massives (CRDM) Université Laval Québec Canada
| | - Mathieu Hénault
- Département de biochimie de microbiologie et de bio-informatique Faculté des sciences et de génie Université Laval Québec Canada.,Département de biologie Faculté des sciences et de génie Université Laval Québec Canada.,Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS) Université Laval Québec Canada.,PROTEO Le réseau québécois de recherche sur la fonction la structure et l'ingénierie des protéines Université Laval Québec Canada.,Centre de Recherche en Données Massives (CRDM) Université Laval Québec Canada
| | - Anna Fijarczyk
- Département de biochimie de microbiologie et de bio-informatique Faculté des sciences et de génie Université Laval Québec Canada.,Département de biologie Faculté des sciences et de génie Université Laval Québec Canada.,Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS) Université Laval Québec Canada.,PROTEO Le réseau québécois de recherche sur la fonction la structure et l'ingénierie des protéines Université Laval Québec Canada.,Centre de Recherche en Données Massives (CRDM) Université Laval Québec Canada
| | - Rohan Dandage
- Département de biochimie de microbiologie et de bio-informatique Faculté des sciences et de génie Université Laval Québec Canada.,Département de biologie Faculté des sciences et de génie Université Laval Québec Canada.,Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS) Université Laval Québec Canada.,PROTEO Le réseau québécois de recherche sur la fonction la structure et l'ingénierie des protéines Université Laval Québec Canada.,Centre de Recherche en Données Massives (CRDM) Université Laval Québec Canada
| | - Carla Bautista
- Département de biochimie de microbiologie et de bio-informatique Faculté des sciences et de génie Université Laval Québec Canada.,Département de biologie Faculté des sciences et de génie Université Laval Québec Canada.,Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS) Université Laval Québec Canada.,PROTEO Le réseau québécois de recherche sur la fonction la structure et l'ingénierie des protéines Université Laval Québec Canada.,Centre de Recherche en Données Massives (CRDM) Université Laval Québec Canada
| | - Christian R Landry
- Département de biochimie de microbiologie et de bio-informatique Faculté des sciences et de génie Université Laval Québec Canada.,Département de biologie Faculté des sciences et de génie Université Laval Québec Canada.,Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes (IBIS) Université Laval Québec Canada.,PROTEO Le réseau québécois de recherche sur la fonction la structure et l'ingénierie des protéines Université Laval Québec Canada.,Centre de Recherche en Données Massives (CRDM) Université Laval Québec Canada
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Pascual-Carreras E, Marin-Barba M, Herrera-Úbeda C, Font-Martín D, Eckelt K, de Sousa N, García-Fernández J, Saló E, Adell T. Planarian cell number depends on blitzschnell, a novel gene family that balances cell proliferation and cell death. Development 2020; 147:dev.184044. [PMID: 32122990 DOI: 10.1242/dev.184044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/20/2019] [Accepted: 02/19/2020] [Indexed: 01/14/2023]
Abstract
Control of cell number is crucial to define body size during animal development and to restrict tumoral transformation. The cell number is determined by the balance between cell proliferation and cell death. Although many genes are known to regulate those processes, the molecular mechanisms underlying the relationship between cell number and body size remain poorly understood. This relationship can be better understood by studying planarians, flatworms that continuously change their body size according to nutrient availability. We identified a novel gene family, blitzschnell (bls), that consists of de novo and taxonomically restricted genes that control cell proliferation:cell death ratio. Their silencing promotes faster regeneration and increases cell number during homeostasis. Importantly, this increase in cell number leads to an increase in body size only in a nutrient-rich environment; in starved planarians, silencing results in a decrease in cell size and cell accumulation that ultimately produces overgrowths. bls expression is downregulated after feeding and is related to activity of the insulin/Akt/mTOR network, suggesting that the bls family evolved in planarians as an additional mechanism for restricting cell number in nutrient-fluctuating environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eudald Pascual-Carreras
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics and Institute of Biomedicine, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain.,Institut de Biomedicina de la Universitat de Barcelona (IBUB), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain
| | - Marta Marin-Barba
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich Research Park, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK
| | - Carlos Herrera-Úbeda
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics and Institute of Biomedicine, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain.,Institut de Biomedicina de la Universitat de Barcelona (IBUB), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain
| | - Daniel Font-Martín
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics and Institute of Biomedicine, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain.,Institut de Biomedicina de la Universitat de Barcelona (IBUB), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain
| | - Kay Eckelt
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics and Institute of Biomedicine, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain.,Institut de Biomedicina de la Universitat de Barcelona (IBUB), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain
| | - Nidia de Sousa
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics and Institute of Biomedicine, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain.,Institut de Biomedicina de la Universitat de Barcelona (IBUB), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain
| | - Jordi García-Fernández
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics and Institute of Biomedicine, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain.,Institut de Biomedicina de la Universitat de Barcelona (IBUB), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain
| | - Emili Saló
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics and Institute of Biomedicine, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain.,Institut de Biomedicina de la Universitat de Barcelona (IBUB), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain
| | - Teresa Adell
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics and Institute of Biomedicine, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain .,Institut de Biomedicina de la Universitat de Barcelona (IBUB), Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona 08028, Catalunya, Spain
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38
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39
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Ruiz-Orera J, Villanueva-Cañas JL, Albà MM. Evolution of new proteins from translated sORFs in long non-coding RNAs. Exp Cell Res 2020; 391:111940. [PMID: 32156600 DOI: 10.1016/j.yexcr.2020.111940] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/18/2019] [Revised: 02/26/2020] [Accepted: 03/02/2020] [Indexed: 01/07/2023]
Abstract
High throughput RNA sequencing techniques have revealed that a large fraction of the genome is transcribed into long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). Unlike canonical protein-coding genes, lncRNAs do not contain long open reading frames (ORFs) and tend to be poorly conserved across species. However, many of them contain small ORFs (sORFs) that exhibit translation signatures according to ribosome profiling or proteomics data. These sORFs are a source of putative novel proteins; some of them may confer a selective advantage and be maintained over time, a process known as de novo gene birth. Here we review the mechanisms by which randomly occurring sORFs in lncRNAs can become new functional proteins.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jorge Ruiz-Orera
- Cardiovascular and Metabolic Sciences, Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), Berlin, Germany
| | | | - M Mar Albà
- Evolutionary Genomics Group, Research Programme in Biomedical Informatics, Hospital Del Mar Research Institute (IMIM), Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, 08010, Spain.
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40
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Vakirlis N, Carvunis AR, McLysaght A. Synteny-based analyses indicate that sequence divergence is not the main source of orphan genes. eLife 2020; 9:e53500. [PMID: 32066524 PMCID: PMC7028367 DOI: 10.7554/elife.53500] [Citation(s) in RCA: 66] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/11/2019] [Accepted: 01/07/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The origin of 'orphan' genes, species-specific sequences that lack detectable homologues, has remained mysterious since the dawn of the genomic era. There are two dominant explanations for orphan genes: complete sequence divergence from ancestral genes, such that homologues are not readily detectable; and de novo emergence from ancestral non-genic sequences, such that homologues genuinely do not exist. The relative contribution of the two processes remains unknown. Here, we harness the special circumstance of conserved synteny to estimate the contribution of complete divergence to the pool of orphan genes. By separately comparing yeast, fly and human genes to related taxa using conservative criteria, we find that complete divergence accounts, on average, for at most a third of eukaryotic orphan and taxonomically restricted genes. We observe that complete divergence occurs at a stable rate within a phylum but at different rates between phyla, and is frequently associated with gene shortening akin to pseudogenization.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nikolaos Vakirlis
- Smurfit Institute of GeneticsTrinity College Dublin, University of DublinDublinIreland
| | - Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
- Department of Computational and Systems Biology, Pittsburgh Center for Evolutionary Biology and Medicine, School of MedicineUniversity of PittsburghPittsburghUnited States
| | - Aoife McLysaght
- Smurfit Institute of GeneticsTrinity College Dublin, University of DublinDublinIreland
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41
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Oppenheim S, Cao X, Rueppel O, Krongdang S, Phokasem P, DeSalle R, Goodwin S, Xing J, Chantawannakul P, Rosenfeld JA. Whole Genome Sequencing and Assembly of the Asian Honey Bee Apis dorsata. Genome Biol Evol 2020; 12:3677-3683. [PMID: 31860080 PMCID: PMC6953811 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evz277] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 12/13/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
The Asian honey bee (Apis dorsata) is distinct from its more widely distributed cousin Apis mellifera by a few key characteristics. Most prominently, A. dorsata, nest in the open by forming a colony clustered around the honeycomb, whereas A. mellifera nest in concealed cavities. Additionally, the worker and reproductive castes are all of the same size in A. dorsata. In order to investigate these differences, we performed whole genome sequencing of A. dorsata using a hybrid Oxford Nanopore and Illumina approach. The 223 Mb genome has an N50 of 35 kb with the largest scaffold of 302 kb. We have found that there are many genes in the dorsata genome that are distinct from other hymenoptera and also large amounts of transposable elements, and we suggest some candidate genes for A. dorsata's exceptional level of defensive aggression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sara Oppenheim
- Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History
| | - Xiaolong Cao
- Department of Genetics, Human Genetic Institute of New Jersey, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
| | - Olav Rueppel
- Biology Department, University of North Carolina at Greensboro
| | - Sasiprapa Krongdang
- Department of Biology & Environmental Science Research Center (ESRC), Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
| | - Patcharin Phokasem
- Department of Biology & Environmental Science Research Center (ESRC), Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
| | - Rob DeSalle
- Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History
| | | | - Jinchuan Xing
- Department of Genetics, Human Genetic Institute of New Jersey, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
| | - Panuwan Chantawannakul
- Department of Biology & Environmental Science Research Center (ESRC), Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Thailand
| | - Jeffrey A Rosenfeld
- Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics, American Museum of Natural History
- Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey
- Department of Pathology, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
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42
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Rödelsperger C, Prabh N, Sommer RJ. New Gene Origin and Deep Taxon Phylogenomics: Opportunities and Challenges. Trends Genet 2019; 35:914-922. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tig.2019.08.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/27/2019] [Revised: 08/07/2019] [Accepted: 08/29/2019] [Indexed: 01/22/2023]
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43
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Yin H, Li M, Xia L, He C, Zhang Z. Computational determination of gene age and characterization of evolutionary dynamics in human. Brief Bioinform 2019; 20:2141-2149. [PMID: 30184145 DOI: 10.1093/bib/bby074] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/14/2018] [Revised: 08/01/2018] [Accepted: 08/02/2018] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Genes originate at different evolutionary time scales and possess different ages, accordingly presenting diverse functional characteristics and reflecting distinct adaptive evolutionary innovations. In the past decades, progresses have been made in gene age identification by a variety of methods that are principally based on comparative genomics. Here we summarize methods for computational determination of gene age and evaluate the effectiveness of different computational methods for age identification. Our results show that improved age determination can be achieved by combining homolog clustering with phylogeny inference, which enables more accurate age identification in human genes. Accordingly, we characterize evolutionary dynamics of human genes based on an extremely long evolutionary time scale spanning ~4,000 million years from archaea/bacteria to human, revealing that young genes are clustered on certain chromosomes and that Mendelian disease genes (including monogenic disease and polygenic disease genes) and cancer genes exhibit divergent evolutionary origins. Taken together, deciphering genes' ages as well as their evolutionary dynamics is of fundamental significance in unveiling the underlying mechanisms during evolution and better understanding how young or new genes become indispensable integrants coupled with novel phenotypes and biological diversity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hongyan Yin
- Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Bioresources, Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Forestry, Hainan University, China
| | - Mengwei Li
- CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Lin Xia
- CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Chaozu He
- Hainan Key Laboratory for Sustainable Utilization of Tropical Bioresources, Institute of Tropical Agriculture and Forestry, Hainan University, China
| | - Zhang Zhang
- BIG Data Center & CAS Key Laboratory of Genome Sciences and Information, Beijing Institute of Genomics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
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44
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Willemsen A, Félez-Sánchez M, Bravo IG. Genome Plasticity in Papillomaviruses and De Novo Emergence of E5 Oncogenes. Genome Biol Evol 2019; 11:1602-1617. [PMID: 31076746 PMCID: PMC6557308 DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evz095] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/29/2019] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The clinical presentations of papillomavirus (PV) infections come in many different flavors. While most PVs are part of a healthy skin microbiota and are not associated to physical lesions, other PVs cause benign lesions, and only a handful of PVs are associated to malignant transformations linked to the specific activities of the E5, E6, and E7 oncogenes. The functions and origin of E5 remain to be elucidated. These E5 open reading frames (ORFs) are present in the genomes of a few polyphyletic PV lineages, located between the early and the late viral gene cassettes. We have computationally assessed whether these E5 ORFs have a common origin and whether they display the properties of a genuine gene. Our results suggest that during the evolution of Papillomaviridae, at least four events lead to the presence of a long noncoding DNA stretch between the E2 and the L2 genes. In three of these events, the novel regions evolved coding capacity, becoming the extant E5 ORFs. We then focused on the evolution of the E5 genes in AlphaPVs infecting primates. The sharp match between the type of E5 protein encoded in AlphaPVs and the infection phenotype (cutaneous warts, genital warts, or anogenital cancers) supports the role of E5 in the differential oncogenic potential of these PVs. In our analyses, the best-supported scenario is that the five types of extant E5 proteins within the AlphaPV genomes may not have a common ancestor. However, the chemical similarities between E5s regarding amino acid composition prevent us from confidently rejecting the model of a common origin. Our evolutionary interpretation is that an originally noncoding region entered the genome of the ancestral AlphaPVs. This genetic novelty allowed to explore novel transcription potential, triggering an adaptive radiation that yielded three main viral lineages encoding for different E5 proteins, displaying distinct infection phenotypes. Overall, our results provide an evolutionary scenario for the de novo emergence of viral genes and illustrate the impact of such genotypic novelty in the phenotypic diversity of the viral infections.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anouk Willemsen
- Laboratory MIVEGEC (UMR CNRS IRD Uni Montpellier), Centre National de la Recherche Scientique (CNRS), Montpellier, France
| | - Marta Félez-Sánchez
- Infections and Cancer Laboratory, Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO), Barcelona, Spain
| | - Ignacio G Bravo
- Laboratory MIVEGEC (UMR CNRS IRD Uni Montpellier), Centre National de la Recherche Scientique (CNRS), Montpellier, France
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45
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Nielly-Thibault L, Landry CR. Differences Between the Raw Material and the Products of de Novo Gene Birth Can Result from Mutational Biases. Genetics 2019; 212:1353-1366. [PMID: 31227545 PMCID: PMC6707459 DOI: 10.1534/genetics.119.302187] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/18/2019] [Accepted: 06/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Proteins are among the most important constituents of biological systems. Because all protein-coding genes have a noncoding ancestral form, the properties of noncoding sequences and how they shape the birth of novel proteins may influence the structure and function of all proteins. Differences between the properties of young proteins and random expectations from noncoding sequences have previously been interpreted as the result of natural selection. However, interpreting such deviations requires a yet-unattained understanding of the raw material of de novo gene birth and its relation to novel functional proteins. We mathematically show that the average properties and selective filtering of the "junk" polypeptides of which this raw material is composed are not the only factors influencing the properties of novel functional proteins. We find that in some biological scenarios, they also depend on the variance of the properties of junk polypeptides and their correlation with the rate of allelic turnover, which may itself depend on mutational biases. This suggests for instance that any property of polypeptides that accelerates their exploration of the sequence space could be overrepresented in novel functional proteins, even if it has a limited effect on adaptive value. To exemplify the use of our general theoretical results, we build a simple model that predicts the mean length and mean intrinsic disorder of novel functional proteins from the genomic GC content and a single evolutionary parameter. This work provides a theoretical framework that can guide the prediction and interpretation of results when studying the de novo emergence of protein-coding genes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lou Nielly-Thibault
- Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes, Université Laval, Quebec, Quebec G1V 0A6, Canada
- Département de Biologie, Université Laval, Quebec, Quebec G1V 0A6, Canada
- Département de Biochimie, de Microbiologie et de Bio-Informatique, Université Laval, Quebec, Quebec G1V 0A6, Canada
- PROTEO, Quebec, Quebec G1V 0A6, Canada
| | - Christian R Landry
- Institut de Biologie Intégrative et des Systèmes, Université Laval, Quebec, Quebec G1V 0A6, Canada
- Département de Biologie, Université Laval, Quebec, Quebec G1V 0A6, Canada
- Département de Biochimie, de Microbiologie et de Bio-Informatique, Université Laval, Quebec, Quebec G1V 0A6, Canada
- PROTEO, Quebec, Quebec G1V 0A6, Canada
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46
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Li G, Wu X, Hu Y, Muñoz-Amatriaín M, Luo J, Zhou W, Wang B, Wang Y, Wu X, Huang L, Lu Z, Xu P. Orphan genes are involved in drought adaptations and ecoclimatic-oriented selections in domesticated cowpea. JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY 2019; 70:3101-3110. [PMID: 30949664 DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erz145] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/13/2018] [Accepted: 03/20/2019] [Indexed: 05/19/2023]
Abstract
Orphan genes (OGs) are genes that are restricted to a single species or a particular taxonomic group. To date, little is known about the functions of OGs in domesticated crops. Here, we report our findings on the relationships between OGs and environmental adaptation in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata). We identified 578 expressed OGs, of which 73.2% were predicted to be non-coding. Transcriptomic analyses revealed a high rate of OGs that were drought inducible in roots when compared with conserved genes. Co-expression analysis further revealed the possible involvement of OGs in stress response pathways. Overexpression of UP12_8740, a drought-inducible OG, conferred enhanced tolerance to osmotic stresses and soil drought. By combining Capture-Seq and fluorescence-based Kompetitive allele-specific PCR (KASP), we efficiently genotyped single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on OGs across a 223 accession cowpea germplasm collection. Population genomic parameters, including polymorphism information content (PIC), expected heterozygosity (He), nucleotide diversity (π), and Tajima's D statistics, that were calculated based on these SNPs, showed distinct signatures between the grain- and vegetable-type subpopulations of cowpea. This study reinforces the idea that OGs are a valuable resource for identifying new genes related to species-specific environmental adaptations and fosters new insights that artificial selection on OGs might have contributed to balancing the adaptive and agronomic traits in domesticated crops in various ecoclimatic conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Guojing Li
- Institute of Vegetables, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China
- State Key Lab Breeding Base for Sustainable Control of Plant Pest and Disease, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China
| | - Xinyi Wu
- Institute of Vegetables, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China
| | - Yaowen Hu
- Institute of Vegetables, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China
| | - Maria Muñoz-Amatriaín
- Department of Botany and Plant Sciences, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USA
| | - Jie Luo
- Central Laboratory of Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China
| | - Wen Zhou
- Institute of Vegetables, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China
| | - Baogen Wang
- Institute of Vegetables, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China
| | - Ying Wang
- Institute of Vegetables, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China
| | - Xiaohua Wu
- Institute of Vegetables, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China
| | - Lijuan Huang
- Institute of Vegetables, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China
- College of Horticulture, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Yangling, China
| | - Zhongfu Lu
- Institute of Vegetables, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China
| | - Pei Xu
- Institute of Vegetables, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China
- State Key Lab Breeding Base for Sustainable Control of Plant Pest and Disease, Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Hangzhou, China
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47
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Suzuki IK. Molecular drivers of human cerebral cortical evolution. Neurosci Res 2019; 151:1-14. [PMID: 31175883 DOI: 10.1016/j.neures.2019.05.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/28/2019] [Revised: 05/30/2019] [Accepted: 05/31/2019] [Indexed: 01/10/2023]
Abstract
One of the most important questions in human evolutionary biology is how our ancestor has acquired an expanded volume of the cerebral cortex, which may have significantly impacted on improving our cognitive abilities. Recent comparative approaches have identified developmental features unique to the human or hominid cerebral cortex, not shared with other animals including conventional experimental models. In addition, genomic, transcriptomic, and epigenomic signatures associated with human- or hominid-specific processes of the cortical development are becoming identified by virtue of technical progress in the deep nucleotide sequencing. This review discusses ontogenic and phylogenetic processes of the human cerebral cortex, followed by the introduction of recent comprehensive approaches identifying molecular mechanisms potentially driving the evolutionary changes in the cortical development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ikuo K Suzuki
- Department of Biological Sciences, Graduate School of Science, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033 Japan; VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Department of Neurosciences, Leuven Brain Institute, KULeuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium; Université Libre de Bruxelles (U.L.B.), Institut de Recherches en Biologie Humaine et Moléculaire (IRIBHM), ULB Neuroscience Institute (UNI), 1070 Brussels, Belgium.
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Radchuk V, Sharma R, Potokina E, Radchuk R, Weier D, Munz E, Schreiber M, Mascher M, Stein N, Wicker T, Kilian B, Borisjuk L. The highly divergent Jekyll genes, required for sexual reproduction, are lineage specific for the related grass tribes Triticeae and Bromeae. THE PLANT JOURNAL : FOR CELL AND MOLECULAR BIOLOGY 2019; 98:961-974. [PMID: 31021020 PMCID: PMC6851964 DOI: 10.1111/tpj.14363] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2019] [Revised: 03/27/2019] [Accepted: 04/04/2019] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Phylogenetically related groups of species contain lineage-specific genes that exhibit no sequence similarity to any genes outside the lineage. We describe here that the Jekyll gene, required for sexual reproduction, exists in two much diverged allelic variants, Jek1 and Jek3. Despite low similarity, the Jek1 and Jek3 proteins share identical signal peptides, conserved cysteine positions and direct repeats. The Jek1/Jek3 sequences are located at the same chromosomal locus and inherited in a monogenic Mendelian fashion. Jek3 has a similar expression as Jek1 and complements the Jek1 function in Jek1-deficient plants. Jek1 and Jek3 allelic variants were almost equally distributed in a collection of 485 wild and domesticated barley accessions. All domesticated barleys harboring the Jek1 allele belong to single haplotype J1-H1 indicating a genetic bottleneck during domestication. Domesticated barleys harboring the Jek3 allele consisted of three haplotypes. Jekyll-like sequences were found only in species of the closely related tribes Bromeae and Triticeae but not in other Poaceae. Non-invasive magnetic resonance imaging revealed intrinsic grain structure in Triticeae and Bromeae, associated with the Jekyll function. The emergence of Jekyll suggests its role in the separation of the Bromeae and Triticeae lineages within the Poaceae and identifies the Jekyll genes as lineage-specific.
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Affiliation(s)
- Volodymyr Radchuk
- Leibniz‐Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)06466GaterslebenGermany
| | - Rajiv Sharma
- Leibniz‐Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)06466GaterslebenGermany
- Present address:
Division of Plant SciencesSchool of Life SciencesUniversity of DundeeThe James Hutton InstituteInvergowrie, DundeeDD2 5DAUK
| | - Elena Potokina
- Leibniz‐Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)06466GaterslebenGermany
- Vavilov Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR)St. Petersburg190000Russian Federation
| | - Ruslana Radchuk
- Leibniz‐Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)06466GaterslebenGermany
| | - Diana Weier
- Leibniz‐Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)06466GaterslebenGermany
| | - Eberhard Munz
- Leibniz‐Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)06466GaterslebenGermany
- Department of Experimental Physics 5University of WürzburgWürzburgGermany
| | | | - Martin Mascher
- Leibniz‐Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)06466GaterslebenGermany
| | - Nils Stein
- Leibniz‐Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)06466GaterslebenGermany
| | - Thomas Wicker
- Department of Plant and Microbial BiologyUniversity of ZürichZürichSwitzerland
| | - Benjamin Kilian
- Leibniz‐Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)06466GaterslebenGermany
- Present address:
Global Crop Diversity Trust53113BonnGermany
| | - Ljudmilla Borisjuk
- Leibniz‐Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK)06466GaterslebenGermany
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49
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephen Branden Van Oss
- Department of Computational and Systems Biology, Pittsburgh Center for Evolutionary Biology and Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America
| | - Anne-Ruxandra Carvunis
- Department of Computational and Systems Biology, Pittsburgh Center for Evolutionary Biology and Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, United States of America
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50
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Uniquely human CHRFAM7A gene increases the hematopoietic stem cell reservoir in mice and amplifies their inflammatory response. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2019; 116:7932-7940. [PMID: 30944217 PMCID: PMC6475388 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1821853116] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/21/2022] Open
Abstract
The emergence of uniquely human genes during hominid speciation enabled numerous human-specific adaptations that presumably included changes in resilience to disease but potentially increased susceptibility as well. Here we show that the transgenic expression of one such gene, called CHRFAM7A, changes the mouse reservoir of hematopoietic stem cells in bone marrow and amplifies the mouse inflammatory response in a model of human systemic inflammatory response syndrome (SIRS). Because the CHRFAM7A gene is a dominant-negative inhibitor of ligand binding to α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR), a neurotransmitter receptor implicated in immunity, inflammation, neurodegeneration, and cognitive function, the results underscore the importance of understanding the contribution of species-specific genes to human disease and the impact they may have on the fidelity of animal models for translational medicine. A subset of genes in the human genome are uniquely human and not found in other species. One example is CHRFAM7A, a dominant-negative inhibitor of the antiinflammatory α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (α7nAChR/CHRNA7) that is also a neurotransmitter receptor linked to cognitive function, mental health, and neurodegenerative disease. Here we show that CHRFAM7A blocks ligand binding to both mouse and human α7nAChR, and hypothesized that CHRFAM7A-transgenic mice would allow us to study its biological significance in a tractable animal model of human inflammatory disease, namely SIRS, the systemic inflammatory response syndrome that accompanies severe injury and sepsis. We found that CHRFAM7A increased the hematopoietic stem cell (HSC) reservoir in bone marrow and biased HSC differentiation to the monocyte lineage in vitro. We also observed that while the HSC reservoir was depleted in SIRS, HSCs were spared in CHRFAM7A-transgenic mice and that these mice also had increased immune cell mobilization, myeloid cell differentiation, and a shift to inflammatory monocytes from granulocytes in their inflamed lungs. Together, the findings point to a pathophysiological inflammatory consequence to the emergence of CHRFAM7A in the human genome. To this end, it is interesting to speculate that human genes like CHRFAM7A can account for discrepancies between the effectiveness of drugs like α7nAChR agonists in animal models and human clinical trials for inflammatory and neurodegenerative disease. The findings also support the hypothesis that uniquely human genes may be contributing to underrecognized human-specific differences in resiliency/susceptibility to complications of injury, infection, and inflammation, not to mention the onset of neurodegenerative disease.
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