| Literature DB >> 29914363 |
Julie C Dunning Hotopp1,2,3.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Lateral gene transfer (LGT), also known as horizontal gene transfer, into multicellular eukaryotes with differentiated tissues, particularly gonads, continues to be met with skepticism by many prominent evolutionary and genomic biologists. A detailed examination of 26 animal genomes identified putative LGTs in invertebrate and vertebrate genomes, concluding that there are fewer predicted LGTs in vertebrates/chordates than invertebrates, but there is still evidence of LGT into chordates, including humans. More recently, a reanalysis of a subset of these putative LGTs into vertebrates concluded that there is not horizontal gene transfer in the human genome. One of the genes in dispute is an N-acyl-aromatic-L-amino acid amidohydrolase (ENSG00000132744), which encodes ACY3. This gene was initially identified as a putative bacteria-chordate LGT but was later debunked as it has a significant BLAST match to a more recently deposited genome of Saccoglossus kowalevskii, a flatworm, Metazoan, and hemichordate.Entities:
Keywords: ACY3; ASPA; Bacteria; Chordate; Evolution; Gene loss; Horizontal gene transfer; Lateral gene transfer; Rate variation; Vertebrate
Mesh:
Year: 2018 PMID: 29914363 PMCID: PMC6006793 DOI: 10.1186/s12864-018-4832-5
Source DB: PubMed Journal: BMC Genomics ISSN: 1471-2164 Impact factor: 3.969
Fig. 1Maximum Likelihood Phylogeny of ACY3/ASPA Homologues. The maximum likelihood (ML) phylogeny of ACY3/ASPA homologues inferred with RAxML is visualized with FigTree in a rectangular phylogram rooted on the edge between the majority of eukaryotic proteins and the majority of prokaryotic proteins. When appropriate and supported by a high support value, branches are collapsed and illustrated with triangles that are color-coded according to the taxonomic distribution of the members. The number of proteins represented in the collapsed branches are noted in parentheses on the right
Fig. 2Gene Loss Analysis. Phylogenies from the Tree of Life Web Project were concatenated and used to interpret gene loss. However, it is important to consider that some of the older branches in the tree of life are still disputed. The animal phylogeny was broken out into two panels illustrating: a the evolution of mammals from vertebrates and b the evolution of vertebrates from animals. To assess gene loss, the number of ACY3/ASPA homologues in a given taxonomic lineage were compared to the number of organisms with > 5000 proteins deposited in public databases. ACY3/ASPA homologues are consistently found in the deuterostome lineage, but are missing from some well-sequenced sister taxa like arthropods and nematodes. There are inadequate levels of genome sequence data at key taxonomic levels to enable the delineation of the relative contribution of LGT, gene loss, and rate variation for ASPA/ACY3 homologues
Fig. 3Schematics Illustrating Possible Paths to Explain the Current Distribution of ACY3/ASAP Homologues. Phylogenies from the Tree of Life Web Project were concatenated and LGT and gene loss events were overlaid in four possible scenarios: a presence of ASPA/ACY3 in the last common ancestor of eukaryotes and only gene loss, b absence of ASPA/ACY3 in the last common ancestor of eukaryotes and only LGT, c combination of LGT and gene loss where LGT occurred in the ancestor of all deuterostomes, d combination of LGT and gene loss where LGT occurred in the ancestor of all animals. Maroon arrows are used to indicate LGT in an entire lineage, while pink arrows are used to indicate LGT in a subset of taxa represented here. Dark purple arrows are used to indicate gene loss in an entire lineage, while lavender arrows are used to indicate gene loss in a subset of taxa represented here. It is not possible at this time to determine the likelihood of all of these possible scenarios, without better resolution of the eukaryotic tree of life, more sequence data from non-animal lineages, and a better understanding of the rates of gene loss and LGT in eukaryotes, which likely vary by lineage. However, it seems improbable that gene loss alone explains these results, which suggests that some LGT from bacteria to eukaryotes, and most likely, animals is responsible for the distribution of ACY3/ASPA homologues observed today