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. 2021 Mar 1;13(3):evab010.
doi: 10.1093/gbe/evab010.

Gene Duplication and Gain in the Trematode Atriophallophorus winterbourni Contributes to Adaptation to Parasitism

Affiliations

Gene Duplication and Gain in the Trematode Atriophallophorus winterbourni Contributes to Adaptation to Parasitism

Natalia Zajac et al. Genome Biol Evol. .

Abstract

Gene duplications and novel genes have been shown to play a major role in helminth adaptation to a parasitic lifestyle because they provide the novelty necessary for adaptation to a changing environment, such as living in multiple hosts. Here we present the de novo sequenced and annotated genome of the parasitic trematode Atriophallophorus winterbourni and its comparative genomic analysis to other major parasitic trematodes. First, we reconstructed the species phylogeny, and dated the split of A. winterbourni from the Opisthorchiata suborder to approximately 237.4 Ma (±120.4 Myr). We then addressed the question of which expanded gene families and gained genes are potentially involved in adaptation to parasitism. To do this, we used hierarchical orthologous groups to reconstruct three ancestral genomes on the phylogeny leading to A. winterbourni and performed a GO (Gene Ontology) enrichment analysis of the gene composition of each ancestral genome, allowing us to characterize the subsequent genomic changes. Out of the 11,499 genes in the A. winterbourni genome, as much as 24% have arisen through duplication events since the speciation of A. winterbourni from the Opisthorchiata, and as much as 31.9% appear to be novel, that is, newly acquired. We found 13 gene families in A. winterbourni to have had more than ten genes arising through these recent duplications; all of which have functions potentially relating to host behavioral manipulation, host tissue penetration, and hiding from host immunity through antigen presentation. We identified several families with genes evolving under positive selection. Our results provide a valuable resource for future studies on the genomic basis of adaptation to parasitism and point to specific candidate genes putatively involved in antagonistic host-parasite adaptation.

Keywords: comparative genomics; evolution; phylogeny; selection.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A summary table showing several shared life cycle characteristics of the trematodes used in the study. The first seven columns indicate the presence (blue) or absence (gray) of developmental stages in each parasite’s life cycle. “Host number” indicates the number of hosts in a parasite’s life cycle, “Type of adult worm” indicates whether the adult worms in the final host are hermaphroditic or dioecious (both males and females present). Species within the genera Schistosoma and Opisthorchis are grouped due to identical characteristics. The photographs below represent the metacercaria and adult stage of A. winterbourni and the intermediate host of A. winterbourni (P. antipodarum snail) (photographs taken by N. Zajac and K. Seppälä).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Phylogenetic tree and classification of species used in the analysis. The data used for the tree were all Orthologous Groups from the OMA analysis with genes from at least 15 species present (238 groups of orthologs). The combined data was used in IQ-TREE to create a robust consensus species tree. The tree and the combined alignment of 238 groups of orthologs was used in Mega-X 6.06 for reconstruction of the time tree. The scale below indicates divergence time in million years (Myr). Each node has a divergence time with the confidence interval indicated in brackets in million years and a bootstrap support indicated after a slash.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
(A). Number of duplicated, retained (1:1 orthologs) and gained genes resulting after each point of speciation obtained from the analysis of HOG in pyHam, mapped onto a phylogenetic tree of trematodes (for original, see supplementary fig. S6, Supplementary Material online). The total number of genes at each point is indicated on the left-hand side of the bar and the total number of retained (pink), duplicated (green), and gained (yellow) genes are indicated on the right-hand side of the bar. The bars indicate the proportions of genes in each category. The lost genes are indicated only for the three ancestral genomes: the Trematoda ancestor, the Plagiorchiia ancestor, and the Opisthorchiata/Xiphidiata ancestor. (B) The proportions (on the bars) and the total numbers (next to the bars) of retained (pink), duplicated (green), and gained (yellow) genes in each reconstructed ancestral genome leading to A. winterbourni. The oldest ancestral genome is on the left-hand side and the extant A. winterbourni genome on the right-hand side. The total number of genes per genome is above each bar beneath the name. (C) Heatmaps summarising the GO enrichment analysis of the duplicated and gained genes in the three reconstructed ancestral genomes and the extant genome of A. winterbourni. All enriched GO terms were categorized into GO slims, listed on the y-axis of each heatmap. The colors indicate the mean IC value of each GO slim category and the number printed on top is the number of unique genes within that GO slim category (see Materials and Methods).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Gene tree of gene family HOG 25969 created with IQ-TREE. The tree is unrooted. Each name is a species name followed by the original gene name (protein name). Atriophallophorus winterbourni gene names are shortened version of gene names in supplementary table S10, Supplementary Material online. The numbers above branches indicate ultrafast bootstrap support, for the #1 branches the bootstrap support is after a backslash. The branches labelled with #1.X indicate the separation between the foreground branches and the background branches (distinction used in codeml for investigation of selection). The test for selection compares the dN/dS between the foreground branch and the background branches. The total number of genes in this HOG per trematode species is given next to each species name.

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