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Gendron EMS, Qing X, Sevigny JL, Li H, Liu Z, Blaxter M, Powers TO, Thomas WK, Porazinska DL. Comparative mitochondrial genomics in Nematoda reveal astonishing variation in compositional biases and substitution rates indicative of multi-level selection. BMC Genomics 2024; 25:615. [PMID: 38890582 PMCID: PMC11184840 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-024-10500-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2024] [Accepted: 06/05/2024] [Indexed: 06/20/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Nematodes are the most abundant and diverse metazoans on Earth, and are known to significantly affect ecosystem functioning. A better understanding of their biology and ecology, including potential adaptations to diverse habitats and lifestyles, is key to understanding their response to global change scenarios. Mitochondrial genomes offer high species level characterization, low cost of sequencing, and an ease of data handling that can provide insights into nematode evolutionary pressures. RESULTS Generally, nematode mitochondrial genomes exhibited similar structural characteristics (e.g., gene size and GC content), but displayed remarkable variability around these general patterns. Compositional strand biases showed strong codon position specific G skews and relationships with nematode life traits (especially parasitic feeding habits) equal to or greater than with predicted phylogeny. On average, nematode mitochondrial genomes showed low non-synonymous substitution rates, but also high clade specific deviations from these means. Despite the presence of significant mutational saturation, non-synonymous (dN) and synonymous (dS) substitution rates could still be significantly explained by feeding habit and/or habitat. Low ratios of dN:dS rates, particularly associated with the parasitic lifestyles, suggested the presence of strong purifying selection. CONCLUSIONS Nematode mitochondrial genomes demonstrated a capacity to accumulate diversity in composition, structure, and content while still maintaining functional genes. Moreover, they demonstrated a capacity for rapid evolutionary change pointing to a potential interaction between multi-level selection pressures and rapid evolution. In conclusion, this study helps establish a background for our understanding of the potential evolutionary pressures shaping nematode mitochondrial genomes, while outlining likely routes of future inquiry.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eli M S Gendron
- Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA.
| | - Xue Qing
- Department of Plant Pathology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China.
| | - Joseph L Sevigny
- Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
- Hubbard Center for Genome Studies, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
| | - Hongmei Li
- Department of Plant Pathology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
| | - Zhiyin Liu
- Department of Plant Pathology, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China
| | | | - Thomas O Powers
- Department of Plant Pathology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA
| | - W Kelly Thomas
- Molecular, Cellular, and Biomedical Sciences, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
- Hubbard Center for Genome Studies, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, USA
| | - Dorota L Porazinska
- Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
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Zhang W, Li H, Zhao Y, Guan C, Chai R, Yang C, Hu L. Secondary structure construction and molecular identification of rRNA 18S V4 region E23-5-E23-6 of parasitic lice of Hominidae. Acta Trop 2023; 238:106772. [PMID: 36423700 DOI: 10.1016/j.actatropica.2022.106772] [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: 11/01/2022] [Revised: 11/17/2022] [Accepted: 11/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
Abstract
The parasitic lice of Hominidae are a class of blood-sucking insects, having a large fragment expansion region in ribosome 18S V4 region. In this study, the value of the E23-5-E23-6 stem-loop structure in the insertion region for molecular identification of lice were explored through motif analysis and secondary structure construction. Five pubic lice samples from China were morphologically identified, and primers for the rRNA 18S V4 region were designed for molecular identification. The V4 sequence of the parasitic lice of Hominidae was retrieved from GenBank for sequence analysis. The five samples were identified as pubic lice based on V4 region, which were of the same specie but geographically different from Australian strains in Genbank, with the identity of 99.06-99.46%. Compared with the human lice, both the chimpanzee lice and pubic lice had large indel fragments in the V4 region. Comparison results showed that Muscle and MAFFT had better alignment and phylogeny results than Clustal. The large expansion region, comprising E23-5 and E23-6, was located between E23-4 and E23-7. The V4 secondary structure showed that the stem-loop structures of the lice parasitizing on pubic area, human, and chimpanzee were different in the E23-5 and E23-6, which could effectively distinguish the three parasitic lice and divide the human lice into five genotypes. This is suitable not only for the identification of three lice species in higher taxonomic ranks but also for genotype identification of human lice in lower taxonomic ranks. The difference between the stem-loop structure is more intuitive than that between the primary sequences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wanyu Zhang
- Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710061, China
| | - Haoruo Li
- Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710061, China
| | - Yae Zhao
- Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710061, China.
| | - Chenglin Guan
- Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710061, China
| | - Rong Chai
- Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710061, China
| | - Chenxi Yang
- Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710061, China
| | - Li Hu
- Department of Pathogenic Biology and Immunology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Xi'an Jiaotong University Health Science Center, Xi'an, Shaanxi, 710061, China
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