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Guo QR, Cao YJ. Applications of genetic code expansion technology in eukaryotes. Protein Cell 2024; 15:331-363. [PMID: 37847216 PMCID: PMC11074999 DOI: 10.1093/procel/pwad051] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/04/2023] [Accepted: 09/26/2023] [Indexed: 10/18/2023] Open
Abstract
Unnatural amino acids (UAAs) have gained significant attention in protein engineering and drug development owing to their ability to introduce new chemical functionalities to proteins. In eukaryotes, genetic code expansion (GCE) enables the incorporation of UAAs and facilitates posttranscriptional modification (PTM), which is not feasible in prokaryotic systems. GCE is also a powerful tool for cell or animal imaging, the monitoring of protein interactions in target cells, drug development, and switch regulation. Therefore, there is keen interest in utilizing GCE in eukaryotic systems. This review provides an overview of the application of GCE in eukaryotic systems and discusses current challenges that need to be addressed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Qiao-ru Guo
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Oncogenomic, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Genomics, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
| | - Yu J Cao
- State Key Laboratory of Chemical Oncogenomic, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Chemical Genomics, Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School, Shenzhen 518055, China
- Institute of Chemical Biology, Shenzhen Bay Laboratory, Shenzhen 518132, China
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2
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Thøgersen MS, Zervas A, Stougaard P, Ellegaard-Jensen L. Investigating eukaryotic and prokaryotic diversity and functional potential in the cold and alkaline ikaite columns in Greenland. Front Microbiol 2024; 15:1358787. [PMID: 38655082 PMCID: PMC11035741 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1358787] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2023] [Accepted: 03/08/2024] [Indexed: 04/26/2024] Open
Abstract
The ikaite columns in the Ikka Fjord, SW Greenland, represent a permanently cold and alkaline environment known to contain a rich bacterial diversity. 16S and 18S rRNA gene amplicon and metagenomic sequencing was used to investigate the microbial diversity in the columns and for the first time, the eukaryotic and archaeal diversity in ikaite columns were analyzed. The results showed a rich prokaryotic diversity that varied across columns as well as within each column. Seven different archaeal phyla were documented in multiple locations inside the columns. The columns also contained a rich eukaryotic diversity with 27 phyla representing microalgae, protists, fungi, and small animals. Based on metagenomic sequencing, 25 high-quality MAGs were assembled and analyzed for the presence of genes involved in cycling of nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorous as well as genes encoding carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes), showing a potentially very bioactive microbial community.
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3
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Dong K, Wang Y, Zhang W, Li Q. Prevalence and Preferred Niche of Small Eukaryotes with Mixotrophic Potentials in the Global Ocean. Microorganisms 2024; 12:750. [PMID: 38674694 PMCID: PMC11051772 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms12040750] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/18/2024] [Revised: 03/23/2024] [Accepted: 03/24/2024] [Indexed: 04/28/2024] Open
Abstract
Unicellular eukaryotes that are capable of phago-mixotrophy in the ocean compete for inorganic nutrients and light with autotrophs, and for bacterial prey with heterotrophs. In this study, we ask what the overall prevalence of eukaryotic mixotrophs in the vast open ocean is, and how the availability of inorganic nutrients, light, and prey affects their relative success. We utilized the Tara Oceans eukaryotic 18S rRNA gene and environmental context variables dataset to conduct a large-scale field analysis. We also performed isolate-based culture experiments to verify growth and nutritional resource relationships for representative mixotrophic taxa. The field analysis suggested that the overall prevalence of mixotrophs were negatively correlated with nutrient concentrations and positively associated with light availability. Concentrations of heterotrophic bacteria as a single variable also presented a positive correlation with mixotrophic prevalence, but to a lesser extent. On the other hand, the culture experiments demonstrated a taxa-specific relationship between mixotrophic growth and nutrition resources, i.e., the growth of one group was significantly dependent on light availability, while the other group was less affected by light when they received sufficient prey. Both groups were capable of growing efficiently with low inorganic nutrients when receiving sufficient prey and light. Therefore, our field analysis and culture experiments both suggest that phago-mixotrophy for ocean eukaryotes is seemingly an efficient strategy to compensate for nutrient deficiency but unnecessary to compensate for light scarcity. This study collectively revealed a close relationship between abiotic and biotic nutritional resources and the prevalence of trophic strategies, shedding light on the importance of light and nutrients for determining the competitive success of mixotrophs versus autotrophic and heterotrophic eukaryotes in the ocean.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaiyi Dong
- School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai 200030, China
| | - Ying Wang
- School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai 200030, China
| | - Wenjing Zhang
- School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai 200030, China
| | - Qian Li
- School of Oceanography, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai 200030, China
- Key Laboratory of Polar Ecosystem and Climate Change, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Ministry of Education, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai 200030, China
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Meng WY, Wang ZX, Zhang Y, Hou Y, Xue JH. Epigenetic marks or not? The discovery of novel DNA modifications in eukaryotes. J Biol Chem 2024; 300:106791. [PMID: 38403247 PMCID: PMC11065753 DOI: 10.1016/j.jbc.2024.106791] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2023] [Revised: 01/24/2024] [Accepted: 02/04/2024] [Indexed: 02/27/2024] Open
Abstract
DNA modifications add another layer of complexity to the eukaryotic genome to regulate gene expression, playing critical roles as epigenetic marks. In eukaryotes, the study of DNA epigenetic modifications has been confined to 5mC and its derivatives for decades. However, rapid developing approaches have witnessed the expansion of DNA modification reservoirs during the past several years, including the identification of 6mA, 5gmC, 4mC, and 4acC in diverse organisms. However, whether these DNA modifications function as epigenetic marks requires careful consideration. In this review, we try to present a panorama of all the DNA epigenetic modifications in eukaryotes, emphasizing recent breakthroughs in the identification of novel DNA modifications. The characterization of their roles in transcriptional regulation as potential epigenetic marks is summarized. More importantly, the pathways for generating or eliminating these DNA modifications, as well as the proteins involved are comprehensively dissected. Furthermore, we briefly discuss the potential challenges and perspectives, which should be taken into account while investigating novel DNA modifications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei-Ying Meng
- Key Laboratory of Spine and Spinal Cord Injury Repair and Regeneration of Ministry of Education, Tongji Hospital affiliated to Tongji University, Frontier Science Center for Stem Cell Research, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Zi-Xin Wang
- Key Laboratory of Spine and Spinal Cord Injury Repair and Regeneration of Ministry of Education, Tongji Hospital affiliated to Tongji University, Frontier Science Center for Stem Cell Research, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Yunfang Zhang
- Clinical and Translational Research Center of Shanghai First Maternity and Infant Hospital, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Signaling and Disease Research, Frontier Science Center for Stem Cell Research, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
| | - Yujun Hou
- Institute for Regenerative Medicine, Shanghai East Hospital, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Signaling and Disease Research, Frontier Science Center for Stem Cell Research, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
| | - Jian-Huang Xue
- Key Laboratory of Spine and Spinal Cord Injury Repair and Regeneration of Ministry of Education, Tongji Hospital affiliated to Tongji University, Frontier Science Center for Stem Cell Research, School of Life Sciences and Technology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China.
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5
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Savaglia V, Lambrechts S, Tytgat B, Vanhellemont Q, Elster J, Willems A, Wilmotte A, Verleyen E, Vyverman W. Geology defines microbiome structure and composition in nunataks and valleys of the Sør Rondane Mountains, East Antarctica. Front Microbiol 2024; 15:1316633. [PMID: 38380088 PMCID: PMC10877063 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1316633] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2023] [Accepted: 01/09/2024] [Indexed: 02/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Understanding the relation between terrestrial microorganisms and edaphic factors in the Antarctic can provide insights into their potential response to environmental changes. Here we examined the composition of bacterial and micro-eukaryotic communities using amplicon sequencing of rRNA genes in 105 soil samples from the Sør Rondane Mountains (East Antarctica), differing in bedrock or substrate type and associated physicochemical conditions. Although the two most widespread taxa (Acidobacteriota and Chlorophyta) were relatively abundant in each sample, multivariate analysis and co-occurrence networks revealed pronounced differences in community structure depending on substrate type. In moraine substrates, Actinomycetota and Cercozoa were the most abundant bacterial and eukaryotic phyla, whereas on gneiss, granite and marble substrates, Cyanobacteriota and Metazoa were the dominant bacterial and eukaryotic taxa. However, at lower taxonomic level, a distinct differentiation was observed within the Cyanobacteriota phylum depending on substrate type, with granite being dominated by the Nostocaceae family and marble by the Chroococcidiopsaceae family. Surprisingly, metazoans were relatively abundant according to the 18S rRNA dataset, even in samples from the most arid sites, such as moraines in Austkampane and Widerøefjellet ("Dry Valley"). Overall, our study shows that different substrate types support distinct microbial communities, and that mineral soil diversity is a major determinant of terrestrial microbial diversity in inland Antarctic nunataks and valleys.
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Affiliation(s)
- Valentina Savaglia
- InBioS Research Unit, Department of Life Sciences, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
- Laboratory of Protistology and Aquatic Ecology, Department of Biology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Sam Lambrechts
- Laboratory of Protistology and Aquatic Ecology, Department of Biology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
- Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Bjorn Tytgat
- Laboratory of Protistology and Aquatic Ecology, Department of Biology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | | | - Josef Elster
- Faculty of Science, Centre for Polar Ecology, University of South Bohemia České Budějovice and Institute of Botany, Třeboň, Czechia
| | - Anne Willems
- Laboratory of Microbiology, Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Annick Wilmotte
- InBioS Research Unit, Department of Life Sciences, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium
| | - Elie Verleyen
- Laboratory of Protistology and Aquatic Ecology, Department of Biology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
| | - Wim Vyverman
- Laboratory of Protistology and Aquatic Ecology, Department of Biology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium
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Saenz-Agudelo P, Ramirez P, Beldade R, Campoy AN, Garmendia V, Search FV, Fernández M, Wieters EA, Navarrete SA, Landaeta MF, Pérez-Matus A. Environmental DNA reveals temporal variation in mesophotic reefs of the Humboldt upwelling ecosystems of central Chile: Toward a baseline for biodiversity monitoring of unexplored marine habitats. Ecol Evol 2024; 14:e10999. [PMID: 38390005 PMCID: PMC10881902 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.10999] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2023] [Revised: 01/12/2024] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 02/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Temperate mesophotic reef ecosystems (TMREs) are among the least known marine habitats. Information on their diversity and ecology is geographically and temporally scarce, especially in highly productive large upwelling ecosystems. Lack of information remains an obstacle to understanding the importance of TMREs as habitats, biodiversity reservoirs and their connections with better-studied shallow reefs. Here, we use environmental DNA (eDNA) from water samples to characterize the community composition of TMREs on the central Chilean coast, generating the first baseline for monitoring the biodiversity of these habitats. We analyzed samples from two depths (30 and 60 m) over four seasons (spring, summer, autumn, and winter) and at two locations approximately 16 km apart. We used a panel of three metabarcodes, two that target all eukaryotes (18S rRNA and mitochondrial COI) and one specifically targeting fishes (16S rRNA). All panels combined encompassed eDNA assigned to 42 phyla, 90 classes, 237 orders, and 402 families. The highest family richness was found for the phyla Arthropoda, Bacillariophyta, and Chordata. Overall, family richness was similar between depths but decreased during summer, a pattern consistent at both locations. Our results indicate that the structure (composition) of the mesophotic communities varied predominantly with seasons. We analyzed further the better-resolved fish assemblage and compared eDNA with other visual methods at the same locations and depths. We recovered eDNA from 19 genera of fish, six of these have also been observed on towed underwater videos, while 13 were unique to eDNA. We discuss the potential drivers of seasonal differences in community composition and richness. Our results suggest that eDNA can provide valuable insights for monitoring TMRE communities but highlight the necessity of completing reference DNA databases available for this region.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pablo Saenz-Agudelo
- Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Universidad Austral de Chile Valdivia Chile
- Millennium Nucleus for Ecology and Conservation of Temperate Marine Ecosystems, NUTME Las Cruces Chile
| | - Paula Ramirez
- Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales y Evolutivas, Universidad Austral de Chile Valdivia Chile
- Millennium Nucleus for Ecology and Conservation of Temperate Marine Ecosystems, NUTME Las Cruces Chile
| | - Ricardo Beldade
- Millennium Nucleus for Ecology and Conservation of Temperate Marine Ecosystems, NUTME Las Cruces Chile
- Estación Costera de Investigaciones Marinas Pontificia Universidad Católica Las Cruces Chile
| | - Ana N Campoy
- Center of Marine Sciences (CCMAR-CIMAR) University of the Algarve Faro Portugal
| | - Vladimir Garmendia
- Millennium Nucleus for Ecology and Conservation of Temperate Marine Ecosystems, NUTME Las Cruces Chile
- Estación Costera de Investigaciones Marinas Pontificia Universidad Católica Las Cruces Chile
| | - Francesca V Search
- Millennium Nucleus for Ecology and Conservation of Temperate Marine Ecosystems, NUTME Las Cruces Chile
| | - Miriam Fernández
- Millennium Nucleus for Ecology and Conservation of Temperate Marine Ecosystems, NUTME Las Cruces Chile
- Estación Costera de Investigaciones Marinas Pontificia Universidad Católica Las Cruces Chile
| | - Evie A Wieters
- Millennium Nucleus for Ecology and Conservation of Temperate Marine Ecosystems, NUTME Las Cruces Chile
- Estación Costera de Investigaciones Marinas Pontificia Universidad Católica Las Cruces Chile
| | - Sergio A Navarrete
- Millennium Nucleus for Ecology and Conservation of Temperate Marine Ecosystems, NUTME Las Cruces Chile
- Estación Costera de Investigaciones Marinas Pontificia Universidad Católica Las Cruces Chile
- Center for Applied Ecology and Sustainability (CAPES) and Coastal Socio-Ecological Millennium Institute (SECOS) Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Santiago Chile
- Center for Oceanographic Research COASTAL-COASTAL Universidad de Concepción Concepción Chile
| | - Mauricio F Landaeta
- Millennium Nucleus for Ecology and Conservation of Temperate Marine Ecosystems, NUTME Las Cruces Chile
- Laboratorio de Ictiología e Interacciones Biofísicas (LABITI) Instituto de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Valparaíso Valparaíso Chile
| | - Alejandro Pérez-Matus
- Millennium Nucleus for Ecology and Conservation of Temperate Marine Ecosystems, NUTME Las Cruces Chile
- Estación Costera de Investigaciones Marinas Pontificia Universidad Católica Las Cruces Chile
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Safar HA, Alatar F, Mustafa AS. Three Rounds of Read Correction Significantly Improve Eukaryotic Protein Detection in ONT Reads. Microorganisms 2024; 12:247. [PMID: 38399651 PMCID: PMC10893331 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms12020247] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2023] [Revised: 01/19/2024] [Accepted: 01/23/2024] [Indexed: 02/25/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Eukaryotes' whole-genome sequencing is crucial for species identification, gene detection, and protein annotation. Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT) is an affordable and rapid platform for sequencing eukaryotes; however, the relatively higher error rates require computational and bioinformatic efforts to produce more accurate genome assemblies. Here, we evaluated the effect of read correction tools on eukaryote genome completeness, gene detection and protein annotation. METHODS Reads generated by ONT of four eukaryotes, C. albicans, C. gattii, S. cerevisiae, and P. falciparum, were assembled using minimap2 and underwent three rounds of read correction using flye, medaka and racon. The generates consensus FASTA files were compared for total length (bp), genome completeness, gene detection, and protein-annotation by QUAST, BUSCO, BRAKER1 and InterProScan, respectively. RESULTS Genome completeness was dependent on the assembly method rather than on the read correction tool; however, medaka performed better than flye and racon. Racon significantly performed better than flye and medaka in gene detection, while both racon and medaka significantly performed better than flye in protein-annotation. CONCLUSION We show that three rounds of read correction significantly affect gene detection and protein annotation, which are dependent on assembly quality in preference to assembly completeness.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hussain A. Safar
- OMICS Research Unit, Health Science Centre, Kuwait University, Kuwait City 13110, Kuwait;
| | - Fatemah Alatar
- Serology and Molecular Microbiology Reference Laboratory, Mubarak Al-Kabeer Hospital, Ministry of Health, Kuwait City 13110, Kuwait;
| | - Abu Salim Mustafa
- Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kuwait University, Kuwait City 13110, Kuwait
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Mills DB, Simister RL, Sehein TR, Hallam SJ, Sperling EA, Crowe SA. Constraining the oxygen requirements for modern microbial eukaryote diversity. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2303754120. [PMID: 38165897 PMCID: PMC10786294 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2303754120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2023] [Accepted: 11/07/2023] [Indexed: 01/04/2024] Open
Abstract
Eukaryotes originated prior to the establishment of modern marine oxygen (O2) levels. According to the body fossil and lipid biomarker records, modern (crown) microbial eukaryote lineages began diversifying in the ocean no later than ~800 Ma. While it has long been predicted that increasing atmospheric O2 levels facilitated the early diversification of microbial eukaryotes, the O2 levels needed to permit this diversification remain unconstrained. Using time-resolved geochemical parameter and gene sequence information from a model marine oxygen minimum zone spanning a range of dissolved O2 levels and redox states, we show that microbial eukaryote taxonomic richness and phylogenetic diversity remain the same until O2 declines to around 2 to 3% of present atmospheric levels, below which these diversity metrics become significantly reduced. Our observations suggest that increasing O2 would have only directly promoted early crown-eukaryote diversity if atmospheric O2 was below 2 to 3% of modern levels when crown-eukaryotes originated and then later met or surpassed this range as crown-eukaryotes diversified. If atmospheric O2 was already consistently at or above 2 to 3% of modern levels by the time that crown-eukaryotes originated, then the subsequent diversification of modern microbial eukaryotes was not directly driven by atmospheric oxygenation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniel B. Mills
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Paleontology and Geobiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, 80333Munich, Germany
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
- The Penn State Extraterrestrial Intelligence Center, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA16802
| | - Rachel L. Simister
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Taylor R. Sehein
- Department of Biological Sciences, Smith College, Northampton, MA01063
| | - Steven J. Hallam
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z4, Canada
- Genome Science and Technology Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z4, Canada
- Graduate Program in Bioinformatics, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z4, Canada
- Life Sciences Institute, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z3, Canada
- Bradshaw Research Initiative for Minerals and Mining, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z4, Canada
- Ecosystem Services, Commercialization Platforms and Entrepreneurship (ECOSCOPE) Training Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z3, Canada
| | - Erik A. Sperling
- Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, CA94305
| | - Sean A. Crowe
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z4, Canada
- Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BCV6T 1Z4, Canada
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Ramakodi MP. Merging and concatenation of sequencing reads: a bioinformatics workflow for the comprehensive profiling of microbiome from amplicon data. FEMS Microbiol Lett 2024; 371:fnae009. [PMID: 38305133 DOI: 10.1093/femsle/fnae009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/06/2023] [Revised: 01/16/2024] [Accepted: 01/31/2024] [Indexed: 02/03/2024] Open
Abstract
A comprehensive profiling of microbial diversity is essential to understand the ecosystem functions. Universal primer sets such as the 515Y/926R could amplify a part of 16S and 18S rRNA and infer the diversity of prokaryotes and eukaryotes. However, the analyses of mixed sequencing data pose a bioinformatics challenge; the 16S and 18S rRNA sequences need to be separated first and analysed individually/independently due to variations in the amplicon length. This study describes an alternative strategy, a merging and concatenation workflow, to analyse the mixed amplicon data without separating the 16S and 18S rRNA sequences. The workflow was tested with 24 mock community (MC) samples, and the analyses resolved the composition of prokaryotes and eukaryotes adequately. In addition, there was a strong correlation (cor = 0.950; P-value = 4.754e-10) between the observed and expected abundances in the MC samples, which suggests that the computational approach could infer the microbial proportions accurately. Further, 18 samples collected from the Sundarbans mangrove region were analysed as a case study. The analyses identified Proteobacteria, Bacteroidota, Actinobacteriota, Cyanobacteria, and Crenarchaeota as dominant bacterial phyla and eukaryotic divisions such as Metazoa, Gyrista, Cryptophyta, Chlorophyta, and Dinoflagellata were found to be dominant in the samples. Thus, the results support the applicability of the method in environmental microbiome research. The merging and concatenation workflow presented here requires considerably less computational resources and uses widely/commonly used bioinformatics packages, saving researchers analyses time (for equivalent sample numbers, compared to the conventional approach) required to infer the diversity of major microbial domains from mixed amplicon data at comparable accuracy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Meganathan P Ramakodi
- CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), Hyderabad Zonal Centre, CSIR-IICT Campus, Tarnaka, Hyderabad 500007, India
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Vannutelli A, Ouangraoua A, Perreault JP. Toward a Better Understanding of G4 Evolution in the 3 Living Kingdoms. Evol Bioinform Online 2023; 19:11769343231212075. [PMID: 38046653 PMCID: PMC10693206 DOI: 10.1177/11769343231212075] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2023] [Accepted: 10/18/2023] [Indexed: 12/05/2023] Open
Abstract
Background G-quadruplexes (G4s) are secondary structures in DNA and RNA that impact various cellular processes, such as transcription, splicing, and translation. Due to their numerous functions, G4s are involved in many diseases, making their study important. Yet, G4s evolution remains largely unknown, due to their low sequence similarity and the poor quality of their sequence alignments across several species. To address this, we designed a strategy that avoids direct G4s alignment to study G4s evolution in the 3 species kingdoms. We also explored the coevolution between RBPs and G4s. Methods We retrieved one-to-one orthologous genes from the Ensembl Compara database and computed groups of one-to-one orthologous genes. For each group, we aligned gene sequences and identified G4 families as groups of overlapping G4s in the alignment. We analyzed these G4 families using Count, a tool to infer feature evolution into a gene or a species tree. Additionally, we utilized these G4 families to predict G4s by homology. To establish a control dataset, we performed mono-, di- and tri-nucleotide shuffling. Results Only a few conserved G4s occur among all living kingdoms. In eukaryotes, G4s exhibit slight conservation among vertebrates, and few are conserved between plants. In archaea and bacteria, at most, only 2 G4s are common. The G4 homology-based prediction increases the number of conserved G4s in common ancestors. The coevolution between RNA-binding proteins and G4s was investigated and revealed a modest impact of RNA-binding proteins evolution on G4 evolution. However, the details of this relationship remain unclear. Conclusion Even if G4 evolution still eludes us, the present study provides key information to compute groups of homologous G4 and to reveal the evolution history of G4 families.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anaïs Vannutelli
- Département de biochimie et de génomique fonctionnelle, faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé, pavillon de recherche appliquée sur le cancer, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada
- Département d’informatique, faculté des sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada
| | - Aïda Ouangraoua
- Département d’informatique, faculté des sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada
| | - Jean-Pierre Perreault
- Département de biochimie et de génomique fonctionnelle, faculté de médecine et des sciences de la santé, pavillon de recherche appliquée sur le cancer, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada
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11
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Ip YCA, Chang JJM, Oh RM, Quek ZBR, Chan YKS, Bauman AG, Huang D. Seq' and ARMS shall find: DNA (meta)barcoding of Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures across the tree of life uncovers hidden cryptobiome of tropical urban coral reefs. Mol Ecol 2023; 32:6223-6242. [PMID: 35716352 DOI: 10.1111/mec.16568] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2021] [Revised: 05/06/2022] [Accepted: 06/10/2022] [Indexed: 12/01/2022]
Abstract
Coral reefs are among the richest marine ecosystems on Earth, but there remains much diversity hidden within cavities of complex reef structures awaiting discovery. While the abundance of corals and other macroinvertebrates are known to influence the diversity of other reef-associated organisms, much remains unknown on the drivers of cryptobenthic diversity. A combination of standardized sampling with 12 units of the Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structure (ARMS) and high-throughput sequencing was utilized to uncover reef cryptobiome diversity across the equatorial reefs in Singapore. DNA barcoding and metabarcoding of mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I, nuclear 18S and bacterial 16S rRNA genes revealed the taxonomic composition of the reef cryptobiome, comprising 15,356 microbial ASVs from over 50 bacterial phyla, and 971 MOTUs across 15 metazoan and 19 non-metazoan eukaryote phyla. Environmental factors across different sites were tested for relationships with ARMS diversity. Differences among reefs in diversity patterns of metazoans and other eukaryotes, but not microbial communities, were associated with biotic (coral cover) and abiotic (distance, temperature and sediment) environmental variables. In particular, ARMS deployed at reefs with higher coral cover had greater metazoan diversity and encrusting plate cover, with larger-sized non-coral invertebrates influencing spatial patterns among sites. Our study showed that DNA barcoding and metabarcoding of ARMS constitute a valuable tool for quantifying cryptobenthic diversity patterns and can provide critical information for the effective management of coral reef ecosystems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yin Cheong Aden Ip
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Jia Jin Marc Chang
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Ren Min Oh
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Zheng Bin Randolph Quek
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- Yale-NUS College, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Yong Kit Samuel Chan
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
| | - Andrew G Bauman
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- Department of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Nova Southeastern University, Dania Beach, Florida, USA
| | - Danwei Huang
- Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- Centre for Nature-Based Climate Solutions, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
- Tropical Marine Science Institute, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
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12
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Moyano A, Croce AC, Scolari F. Pathogen-Mediated Alterations of Insect Chemical Communication: From Pheromones to Behavior. Pathogens 2023; 12:1350. [PMID: 38003813 PMCID: PMC10675518 DOI: 10.3390/pathogens12111350] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/12/2023] [Revised: 11/10/2023] [Accepted: 11/11/2023] [Indexed: 11/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Pathogens can influence the physiology and behavior of both animal and plant hosts in a manner that promotes their own transmission and dispersal. Recent research focusing on insects has revealed that these manipulations can extend to the production of pheromones, which are pivotal in chemical communication. This review provides an overview of the current state of research and available data concerning the impacts of bacterial, viral, fungal, and eukaryotic pathogens on chemical communication across different insect orders. While our understanding of the influence of pathogenic bacteria on host chemical profiles is still limited, viral infections have been shown to induce behavioral changes in the host, such as altered pheromone production, olfaction, and locomotion. Entomopathogenic fungi affect host chemical communication by manipulating cuticular hydrocarbons and pheromone production, while various eukaryotic parasites have been observed to influence insect behavior by affecting the production of pheromones and other chemical cues. The effects induced by these infections are explored in the context of the evolutionary advantages they confer to the pathogen. The molecular mechanisms governing the observed pathogen-mediated behavioral changes, as well as the dynamic and mutually influential relationships between the pathogen and its host, are still poorly understood. A deeper comprehension of these mechanisms will prove invaluable in identifying novel targets in the perspective of practical applications aimed at controlling detrimental insect species.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrea Moyano
- Institute of Molecular Genetics, Italian National Research Council (CNR), Via Abbiategrasso 207, I-27100 Pavia, Italy; (A.M.); (A.C.C.)
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Pavia, Via Ferrata 9, I-27100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Anna Cleta Croce
- Institute of Molecular Genetics, Italian National Research Council (CNR), Via Abbiategrasso 207, I-27100 Pavia, Italy; (A.M.); (A.C.C.)
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Pavia, Via Ferrata 9, I-27100 Pavia, Italy
| | - Francesca Scolari
- Institute of Molecular Genetics, Italian National Research Council (CNR), Via Abbiategrasso 207, I-27100 Pavia, Italy; (A.M.); (A.C.C.)
- Department of Biology and Biotechnology, University of Pavia, Via Ferrata 9, I-27100 Pavia, Italy
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13
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Köninger J, Ballabio C, Panagos P, Jones A, Schmid MW, Orgiazzi A, Briones MJI. Ecosystem type drives soil eukaryotic diversity and composition in Europe. Glob Chang Biol 2023; 29:5706-5719. [PMID: 37449367 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16871] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/06/2023] [Revised: 06/05/2023] [Accepted: 06/12/2023] [Indexed: 07/18/2023]
Abstract
Soil eukaryotes play a crucial role in maintaining ecosystem functions and services, yet the factors driving their diversity and distribution remain poorly understood. While many studies focus on some eukaryotic groups (mostly fungi), they are limited in their spatial scale. Here, we analyzed an unprecedented amount of observational data of soil eukaryomes at continental scale (787 sites across Europe) to gain further insights into the impact of a wide range of environmental conditions (climatic and edaphic) on their community composition and structure. We found that the diversity of fungi, protists, rotifers, tardigrades, nematodes, arthropods, and annelids was predominantly shaped by ecosystem type (annual and permanent croplands, managed and unmanaged grasslands, coniferous and broadleaved woodlands), and higher diversity of fungi, protists, nematodes, arthropods, and annelids was observed in croplands than in less intensively managed systems, such as coniferous and broadleaved woodlands. Also in croplands, we found more specialized eukaryotes, while the composition between croplands was more homogeneous compared to the composition of other ecosystems. The observed high proportion of overlapping taxa between ecosystems also indicates that DNA has accumulated from previous land uses, hence mimicking the land transformations occurring in Europe in the last decades. This strong ecosystem-type influence was linked to soil properties, and particularly, soil pH was driving the richness of fungi, rotifers, and annelids, while plant-available phosphorus drove the richness of protists, tardigrades, and nematodes. Furthermore, the soil organic carbon to total nitrogen ratio crucially explained the richness of fungi, protists, nematodes, and arthropods, possibly linked to decades of agricultural inputs. Our results highlighted the importance of long-term environmental variables rather than variables measured at the time of the sampling in shaping soil eukaryotic communities, which reinforces the need to include those variables in addition to ecosystem type in future monitoring programs and conservation efforts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia Köninger
- Departamento de Ecología y Biología Animal, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Spain
- European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy
| | | | - Panos Panagos
- European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy
| | - Arwyn Jones
- European Commission, Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy
| | | | | | - Maria J I Briones
- Departamento de Ecología y Biología Animal, Universidade de Vigo, Vigo, Spain
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14
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Craig JM, Kumar S, Hedges SB. The origin of eukaryotes and rise in complexity were synchronous with the rise in oxygen. Front Bioinform 2023; 3:1233281. [PMID: 37727796 PMCID: PMC10505794 DOI: 10.3389/fbinf.2023.1233281] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/01/2023] [Accepted: 08/07/2023] [Indexed: 09/21/2023] Open
Abstract
The origin of eukaryotes was among the most important events in the history of life, spawning a new evolutionary lineage that led to all complex multicellular organisms. However, the timing of this event, crucial for understanding its environmental context, has been difficult to establish. The fossil and biomarker records are sparse and molecular clocks have thus far not reached a consensus, with dates spanning 2.1-0.91 billion years ago (Ga) for critical nodes. Notably, molecular time estimates for the last common ancestor of eukaryotes are typically hundreds of millions of years younger than the Great Oxidation Event (GOE, 2.43-2.22 Ga), leading researchers to question the presumptive link between eukaryotes and oxygen. We obtained a new time estimate for the origin of eukaryotes using genetic data of both archaeal and bacterial origin, the latter rarely used in past studies. We also avoided potential calibration biases that may have affected earlier studies. We obtained a conservative interval of 2.2-1.5 Ga, with an even narrower core interval of 2.0-1.8 Ga, for the origin of eukaryotes, a period closely aligned with the rise in oxygen. We further reconstructed the history of biological complexity across the tree of life using three universal measures: cell types, genes, and genome size. We found that the rise in complexity was temporally consistent with and followed a pattern similar to the rise in oxygen. This suggests a causal relationship stemming from the increased energy needs of complex life fulfilled by oxygen.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jack M. Craig
- Center for Biodiversity, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States
- Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States
- Department of Biology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - Sudhir Kumar
- Center for Biodiversity, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States
- Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States
- Department of Biology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States
| | - S. Blair Hedges
- Center for Biodiversity, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States
- Institute for Genomics and Evolutionary Medicine, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States
- Department of Biology, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States
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15
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Wang Y, Obbard DJ. Experimental estimates of germline mutation rate in eukaryotes: a phylogenetic meta-analysis. Evol Lett 2023; 7:216-226. [PMID: 37475753 PMCID: PMC10355183 DOI: 10.1093/evlett/qrad027] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/08/2023] [Revised: 05/08/2023] [Accepted: 06/08/2023] [Indexed: 07/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Mutation is the ultimate source of all genetic variation, and over the last 10 years the ready availability of whole-genome sequencing has permitted direct estimation of mutation rate for many non-model species across the tree of life. In this meta-analysis, we make a comprehensive search of the literature for mutation rate estimates in eukaryotes, identifying 140 mutation accumulation (MA) and parent-offspring (PO) sequencing studies covering 134 species. Based on these data, we revisit differences in the single-nucleotide mutation (SNM) rate between different phylogenetic lineages and update the known relationships between mutation rate and generation time, genome size, and nucleotide diversity-while accounting for phylogenetic nonindependence. We do not find a significant difference between MA and PO in estimated mutation rates, but we confirm that mammal and plant lineages have higher mutation rates than arthropods and that unicellular eukaryotes have the lowest mutation rates. We find that mutation rates are higher in species with longer generation times and larger genome sizes, even when accounting for phylogenetic relationships. Moreover, although nucleotide diversity is positively correlated with mutation rate, the gradient of the relationship is significantly less than one (on a logarithmic scale), consistent with higher mutation rates in populations with smaller effective size. For the 29 species for which data are available, we find that indel mutation rates are positively correlated with nucleotide mutation rates and that short deletions are generally more common than short insertions. Nevertheless, despite recent progress, no estimates of either SNM or indel mutation rates are available for the majority of deeply branching eukaryotic lineages-or even for most animal phyla. Even among charismatic megafauna, experimental mutation rate estimates remain unknown for amphibia and scarce for reptiles and fish.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yiguan Wang
- Corresponding author: Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Charlotte Auerbach Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, United Kingdom.
| | - Darren J Obbard
- Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
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16
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Ochkasova A, Arbuzov G, Malygin A, Graifer D. Two "Edges" in Our Knowledge on the Functions of Ribosomal Proteins: The Revealed Contributions of Their Regions to Translation Mechanisms and the Issues of Their Extracellular Transport by Exosomes. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:11458. [PMID: 37511213 PMCID: PMC10380927 DOI: 10.3390/ijms241411458] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/23/2023] [Revised: 07/10/2023] [Accepted: 07/12/2023] [Indexed: 07/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Ribosomal proteins (RPs), the constituents of the ribosome, belong to the most abundant proteins in the cell. A highly coordinated network of interactions implicating RPs and ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs) forms the functionally competent structure of the ribosome, enabling it to perform translation, the synthesis of polypeptide chain on the messenger RNA (mRNA) template. Several RPs contact ribosomal ligands, namely, those with transfer RNAs (tRNAs), mRNA or translation factors in the course of translation, and the contribution of a number of these particular contacts to the translation process has recently been established. Many ribosomal proteins also have various extra-ribosomal functions unrelated to translation. The least-understood and -discussed functions of RPs are those related to their participation in the intercellular communication via extracellular vesicles including exosomes, etc., which often carry RPs as passengers. Recently reported data show that such a kind of communication can reprogram a receptor cell and change its phenotype, which is associated with cancer progression and metastasis. Here, we review the state-of-art ideas on the implications of specific amino acid residues of RPs in the particular stages of the translation process in higher eukaryotes and currently available data on the transport of RPs by extracellular vesicles and its biological effects.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anastasia Ochkasova
- Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Grigory Arbuzov
- Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Alexey Malygin
- Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - Dmitri Graifer
- Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 630090 Novosibirsk, Russia
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17
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Islam T, Azad RB, Kasfy SH, Rahman AA, Khan TZ. Horizontal gene transfer from plant to whitefly. Trends Biotechnol 2023; 41:853-856. [PMID: 36739179 DOI: 10.1016/j.tibtech.2023.01.007] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/31/2022] [Revised: 01/03/2023] [Accepted: 01/11/2023] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
The recent discovery of the horizontal transfer of a toxin-neutralizing gene from plant to whitefly (Bemisia tabaci), a polyphagous insect, sparked a new area of study. In this forum, we discuss some potential biotechnological applications of this newly discovered knowledge in the coevolutionary arms race between plants and whitefly.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tofazzal Islam
- Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur 1706, Bangladesh.
| | - Rojana B Azad
- Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur 1706, Bangladesh
| | - Shamfin H Kasfy
- Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur 1706, Bangladesh
| | - Arin A Rahman
- Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur 1706, Bangladesh
| | - Tasnim Z Khan
- Institute of Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University, Gazipur 1706, Bangladesh
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18
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Barreat JGN, Katzourakis A. A billion years arms-race between viruses, virophages, and eukaryotes. eLife 2023; 12:RP86617. [PMID: 37358563 DOI: 10.7554/elife.86617] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Bamfordviruses are arguably the most diverse group of viruses infecting eukaryotes. They include the Nucleocytoplasmic Large DNA viruses (NCLDVs), virophages, adenoviruses, Mavericks and Polinton-like viruses. Two main hypotheses for their origins have been proposed: the 'nuclear-escape' and 'virophage-first' hypotheses. The nuclear-escape hypothesis proposes an endogenous, Maverick-like ancestor which escaped from the nucleus and gave rise to adenoviruses and NCLDVs. In contrast, the virophage-first hypothesis proposes that NCLDVs coevolved with protovirophages; Mavericks then evolved from virophages that became endogenous, with adenoviruses escaping from the nucleus at a later stage. Here, we test the predictions made by both models and consider alternative evolutionary scenarios. We use a data set of the four core virion proteins sampled across the diversity of the lineage, together with Bayesian and maximum-likelihood hypothesis-testing methods, and estimate rooted phylogenies. We find strong evidence that adenoviruses and NCLDVs are not sister groups, and that Mavericks and Mavirus acquired the rve-integrase independently. We also found strong support for a monophyletic group of virophages (family Lavidaviridae) and a most likely root placed between virophages and the other lineages. Our observations support alternatives to the nuclear-escape scenario and a billion years evolutionary arms-race between virophages and NCLDVs.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Aris Katzourakis
- Department of Biology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom
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19
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Jiang P, Kreitman M, Reinitz J. The effect of mutational robustness on the evolvability of multicellular organisms and eukaryotic cells. J Evol Biol 2023. [PMID: 37256290 DOI: 10.1111/jeb.14180] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/23/2021] [Revised: 03/29/2023] [Accepted: 04/18/2023] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
Canalization involves mutational robustness, the lack of phenotypic change as a result of genetic mutations. Given the large divergence in phenotype across species, understanding the relationship between high robustness and evolvability has been of interest to both theorists and experimentalists. Although canalization was originally proposed in the context of multicellular organisms, the effect of multicellularity and other classes of hierarchical organization on evolvability has not been considered by theoreticians. We address this issue using a Boolean population model with explicit representation of an environment in which individuals with explicit genotype and a hierarchical phenotype representing multicellularity evolve. Robustness is described by a single real number between zero and one which emerges from the genotype-phenotype map. We find that high robustness is favoured in constant environments, and lower robustness is favoured after environmental change. Multicellularity and hierarchical organization severely constrain robustness: peak evolvability occurs at an absolute level of robustness of about 0.99 compared with values of about 0.5 in a classical neutral network model. These constraints result in a sharp peak of evolvability in which the maximum is set by the fact that the fixation of adaptive mutations becomes more improbable as robustness decreases. When robustness is put under genetic control, robustness levels leading to maximum evolvability are selected for, but maximal relative fitness appears to require recombination.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pengyao Jiang
- Department of Ecology & Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Department of Genome Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Martin Kreitman
- Department of Ecology & Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Institute for Genomics & Systems Biology, Chicago, Illinois, USA
| | - John Reinitz
- Department of Ecology & Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Institute for Genomics & Systems Biology, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Department of Statistics, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Department of Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
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20
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Abstract
The emergence of introns was a significant evolutionary leap that is a major distinguishing feature between prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes. While historically introns were regarded merely as the sequences that are removed to produce spliced transcripts encoding functional products, increasingly data suggests that introns play important roles in the regulation of gene expression. Here, we use an intron-centric lens to review the role of introns in eukaryotic gene expression. First, we focus on intron architecture and how it may influence mechanisms of splicing. Second, we focus on the implications of spliceosomal snRNAs and their variants on intron splicing. Finally, we discuss how the presence of introns and the need to splice them influences transcription regulation. Despite the abundance of introns in the eukaryotic genome and their emerging role regulating gene expression, a lot remains unexplored. Therefore, here we refer to introns as the "dark matter" of the eukaryotic genome and discuss some of the outstanding questions in the field.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kaitlin N. Girardini
- Physiology and Neurobiology Department, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States
| | - Anouk M. Olthof
- Physiology and Neurobiology Department, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States
- Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Rahul N. Kanadia
- Physiology and Neurobiology Department, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States
- Institute for Systems Genomics, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, United States
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21
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Savina EA, Shumilina TG, Tumanyan VG, Anashkina AA, Il'icheva IA. Core Promoter Regions of Antisense and Long Intergenic Non-Coding RNAs. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:ijms24098199. [PMID: 37175907 PMCID: PMC10179571 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24098199] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2023] [Revised: 04/25/2023] [Accepted: 05/01/2023] [Indexed: 05/15/2023] Open
Abstract
RNA polymerase II (POL II) is responsible for the transcription of messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs). Previously, we have shown the evolutionary invariance of the structural features of DNA in the POL II core promoters of the precursors of mRNAs. In this work, we have analyzed the POL II core promoters of the precursors of lncRNAs in Homo sapiens and Mus musculus genomes. Structural analysis of nucleotide sequences in positions -50, +30 bp in relation to the TSS have shown the extremely heterogeneous 3D structure that includes two singular regions - hexanucleotide "INR" around the TSS and octanucleotide "TATA-box" at around ~-28 bp upstream. Thus, the 3D structure of core promoters of lncRNA resembles the architecture of the core promoters of mRNAs; however, textual analysis revealed differences between promoters of lncRNAs and promoters of mRNAs, which lies in their textual characteristics; namely, the informational entropy at each position of the nucleotide text of lncRNA core promoters (by the exception of singular regions) is significantly higher than that of the mRNA core promoters. Another distinguishing feature of lncRNA is the extremely rare occurrence in the TATA box of octanucleotides with the consensus sequence. These textual differences can significantly affect the efficiency of the transcription of lncRNAs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ekaterina A Savina
- Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilova, 32, Moscow 119991, Russia
- Department of Information and Internet Technologies of the Institute of Digital Medicine, Sechenov University, 8-2 Trubetskaya str., Moscow 119991, Russia
| | - Tatiana G Shumilina
- Department of Information and Internet Technologies of the Institute of Digital Medicine, Sechenov University, 8-2 Trubetskaya str., Moscow 119991, Russia
| | - Vladimir G Tumanyan
- Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilova, 32, Moscow 119991, Russia
| | - Anastasia A Anashkina
- Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilova, 32, Moscow 119991, Russia
- Department of Information and Internet Technologies of the Institute of Digital Medicine, Sechenov University, 8-2 Trubetskaya str., Moscow 119991, Russia
| | - Irina A Il'icheva
- Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Vavilova, 32, Moscow 119991, Russia
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22
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Gabrielli M, Dai Z, Delafont V, Timmers PHA, van der Wielen PWJJ, Antonelli M, Pinto AJ. Identifying Eukaryotes and Factors Influencing Their Biogeography in Drinking Water Metagenomes. Environ Sci Technol 2023; 57:3645-3660. [PMID: 36827617 PMCID: PMC9996835 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.2c09010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2022] [Revised: 02/13/2023] [Accepted: 02/13/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
The biogeography of eukaryotes in drinking water systems is poorly understood relative to that of prokaryotes or viruses, limiting the understanding of their role and management. A challenge with studying complex eukaryotic communities is that metagenomic analysis workflows are currently not as mature as those that focus on prokaryotes or viruses. In this study, we benchmarked different strategies to recover eukaryotic sequences and genomes from metagenomic data and applied the best-performing workflow to explore the factors affecting the relative abundance and diversity of eukaryotic communities in drinking water distribution systems (DWDSs). We developed an ensemble approach exploiting k-mer- and reference-based strategies to improve eukaryotic sequence identification and identified MetaBAT2 as the best-performing binning approach for their clustering. Applying this workflow to the DWDS metagenomes showed that eukaryotic sequences typically constituted small proportions (i.e., <1%) of the overall metagenomic data with higher relative abundances in surface water-fed or chlorinated systems with high residuals. The α and β diversities of eukaryotes were correlated with those of prokaryotic and viral communities, highlighting the common role of environmental/management factors. Finally, a co-occurrence analysis highlighted clusters of eukaryotes whose members' presence and abundance in DWDSs were affected by disinfection strategies, climate conditions, and source water types.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marco Gabrielli
- Dipartimento
di Ingegneria Civile e Ambientale—Sezione Ambientale, Politecnico di Milano, Milan 20133, Italy
| | - Zihan Dai
- Research
Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China
| | - Vincent Delafont
- Laboratoire
Ecologie et Biologie des Interactions (EBI), Equipe Microorganismes,
Hôtes, Environnements, Université
de Poitiers, Poitiers 86073, France
| | - Peer H. A. Timmers
- KWR
Watercycle Research Institute, 3433 PE Nieuwegein, The Netherlands
- Department
of Microbiology, Radboud University, Heyendaalseweg 135, 6525 AJ Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Paul W. J. J. van der Wielen
- KWR
Watercycle Research Institute, 3433 PE Nieuwegein, The Netherlands
- Laboratory
of Microbiology, Wageningen University, 6700 HB Wageningen, The Netherlands
| | - Manuela Antonelli
- Dipartimento
di Ingegneria Civile e Ambientale—Sezione Ambientale, Politecnico di Milano, Milan 20133, Italy
| | - Ameet J. Pinto
- School
of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, United States
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23
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Saraiva JP, Bartholomäus A, Toscan RB, Baldrian P, Nunes da Rocha U. Recovery of 197 eukaryotic bins reveals major challenges for eukaryote genome reconstruction from terrestrial metagenomes. Mol Ecol Resour 2023. [PMID: 36847735 DOI: 10.1111/1755-0998.13776] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2022] [Revised: 01/23/2023] [Accepted: 02/21/2023] [Indexed: 03/01/2023]
Abstract
As most eukaryotic genomes are yet to be sequenced, the mechanisms underlying their contribution to different ecosystem processes remain untapped. Although approaches to recovering Prokaryotic genomes have become common in genome biology, few studies have tackled the recovery of eukaryotic genomes from metagenomes. This study assessed the reconstruction of microbial eukaryotic genomes using 6000 metagenomes from terrestrial and some transition environments using the EukRep pipeline. Only 215 metagenomic libraries yielded eukaryotic bins. From a total of 447 eukaryotic bins recovered 197 were classified at the phylum level. Streptophytes and fungi were the most represented clades with 83 and 73 bins, respectively. More than 78% of the obtained eukaryotic bins were recovered from samples whose biomes were classified as host-associated, aquatic, and anthropogenic terrestrial. However, only 93 bins were taxonomically assigned at the genus level and 17 bins at the species level. Completeness and contamination estimates were obtained for a total of 193 bins and consisted of 44.64% (σ = 27.41%) and 3.97% (σ = 6.53%), respectively. Micromonas commoda was the most frequent taxon found while Saccharomyces cerevisiae presented the highest completeness, probably because more reference genomes are available. Current measures of completeness are based on the presence of single-copy genes. However, mapping of the contigs from the recovered eukaryotic bins to the chromosomes of the reference genomes showed many gaps, suggesting that completeness measures should also include chromosome coverage. Recovering eukaryotic genomes will benefit significantly from long-read sequencing, development of tools for dealing with repeat-rich genomes, and improved reference genomes databases.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joao Pedro Saraiva
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ GmbH, Leipzig, Germany
| | | | - Rodolfo Brizola Toscan
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ GmbH, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Petr Baldrian
- Laboratory of Environmental Microbiology, Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, Praha, Czech Republic
| | - Ulisses Nunes da Rocha
- Department of Environmental Microbiology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ GmbH, Leipzig, Germany
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24
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Marcet-Houben M, Collado-Cala I, Fuentes-Palacios D, Gómez AD, Molina M, Garisoain-Zafra A, Chorostecki U, Gabaldón T. EvolClustDB: Exploring Eukaryotic Gene Clusters with Evolutionarily Conserved Genomic Neighbourhoods. J Mol Biol 2023:168013. [PMID: 36806474 DOI: 10.1016/j.jmb.2023.168013] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2022] [Revised: 01/24/2023] [Accepted: 02/11/2023] [Indexed: 02/17/2023]
Abstract
Conservation of gene neighbourhood over evolutionary distances is generally indicative of shared regulation or functional association among genes. This concept has been broadly exploited in prokaryotes but its use on eukaryotic genomes has been limited to specific functional classes, such as biosynthetic gene clusters. We here used an evolutionary-based gene cluster discovery algorithm (EvolClust) to pre-compute evolutionarily conserved gene neighbourhoods, which can be searched, browsed and downloaded in EvolClustDB. We inferred ∼35,000 cluster families in 882 different species in genome comparisons of five taxonomically broad clades: Fungi, Plants, Metazoans, Insects and Protists. EvolClustDB allows browsing through the cluster families, as well as searching by protein, species, identifier or sequence. Visualization allows inspecting gene order per species in a phylogenetic context, so that relevant evolutionary events such as gain, loss or transfer, can be inferred. EvolClustDB is freely available, without registration, at http://evolclustdb.org/.
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Affiliation(s)
- Marina Marcet-Houben
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac, 10, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC-CNS). Plaça Eusebi Güell, 1-3, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Ismael Collado-Cala
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac, 10, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC-CNS). Plaça Eusebi Güell, 1-3, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Diego Fuentes-Palacios
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac, 10, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC-CNS). Plaça Eusebi Güell, 1-3, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Alicia D Gómez
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac, 10, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC-CNS). Plaça Eusebi Güell, 1-3, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Manuel Molina
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac, 10, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC-CNS). Plaça Eusebi Güell, 1-3, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Andrés Garisoain-Zafra
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac, 10, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC-CNS). Plaça Eusebi Güell, 1-3, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Uciel Chorostecki
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac, 10, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC-CNS). Plaça Eusebi Güell, 1-3, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
| | - Toni Gabaldón
- Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology, Baldiri Reixac, 10, 08028 Barcelona, Spain; Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC-CNS). Plaça Eusebi Güell, 1-3, 08034 Barcelona, Spain; Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain; Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red de Enfermedades Infecciosas (CIBERINFEC), Barcelona, Spain.
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25
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Wang W, An X, Yan K, Li Q. Construction and Application of Orthogonal T7 Expression System in Eukaryote: An Overview. Adv Biol (Weinh) 2023; 7:e2200218. [PMID: 36464626 DOI: 10.1002/adbi.202200218] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2022] [Revised: 10/17/2022] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
The T7 system is an orthogonal transcription-system, which is characterized by simplicity, higher efficiency, and higher processivity, and it is used for protein or mRNA synthesis in various biological-systems. In comparison with prokaryotes, the construction of the T7 expression system is still on-going in eukaryotes, but it shows greatly applicable prospects. In the present paper, development of T7 expression system construction in eukaryotes is reviewed, including its construction in animal (mammalian cells, trypanosomatid protozoa, Xenopus oocytes, zebrafish), plant, and microorganism and its application in vaccine production and gene therapy. In addition, the innate challenges of T7 expression system construction in eukaryote and its potential application in vaccine production and gene therapy are discussed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wenya Wang
- College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, P. R. China
| | - Xiaoyan An
- College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, P. R. China
| | - Kun Yan
- College of Life Science and Technology, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, P. R. China
| | - Qiang Li
- Key Laboratory for Industrial Biocatalysis, Ministry of Education, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, P. R. China
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26
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Baehren C, Pembaur A, Weil PP, Wewers N, Schult F, Wirth S, Postberg J, Aydin M. The Overlooked Microbiome-Considering Archaea and Eukaryotes Using Multiplex Nanopore-16S-/18S-rDNA-Sequencing: A Technical Report Focusing on Nasopharyngeal Microbiomes. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24. [PMID: 36674956 DOI: 10.3390/ijms24021426] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2022] [Revised: 12/20/2022] [Accepted: 12/27/2022] [Indexed: 01/15/2023] Open
Abstract
In contrast to bacteria, microbiome analyses often neglect archaea, but also eukaryotes. This is partly because they are difficult to culture due to their demanding growth requirements, or some even have to be classified as uncultured microorganisms. Consequently, little is known about the relevance of archaea in human health and diseases. Contemporary broad availability and spread of next generation sequencing techniques now enable a stronger focus on such microorganisms, whose cultivation is difficult. However, due to the enormous evolutionary distances between bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes, the implementation of sequencing strategies for smaller laboratory scales needs to be refined to achieve as a holistic view on the microbiome as possible. Here, we present a technical approach that enables simultaneous analyses of archaeal, bacterial and eukaryotic microbial communities to study their roles in development and courses of respiratory disorders. We thus applied combinatorial 16S-/18S-rDNA sequencing strategies for sequencing-library preparation. Considering the lower total microbiota density of airway surfaces, when compared with gut microbiota, we optimized the DNA purification workflow from nasopharyngeal swab specimens. As a result, we provide a protocol that allows the efficient combination of bacterial, archaeal, and eukaryotic libraries for nanopore-sequencing using Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION devices and subsequent phylogenetic analyses. In a pilot study, this workflow allowed the identification of some environmental archaea, which were not correlated with airway microbial communities before. Moreover, we assessed the protocol's broader applicability using a set of human stool samples. We conclude that the proposed protocol provides a versatile and adaptable tool for combinatorial studies on bacterial, archaeal, and eukaryotic microbiomes on a small laboratory scale.
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27
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Shelin R, Meenakshi S. Rise of Bacterial Small Proteins and Peptides in Therapeutic Applications. Protein Pept Lett 2023; 30:126-136. [PMID: 36654471 DOI: 10.2174/0929866530666230118144723] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/16/2022] [Revised: 10/27/2022] [Accepted: 11/11/2022] [Indexed: 01/19/2023]
Abstract
BACKGROUND Polypeptides that comprise less than 100 amino acids (50 amino acids in some cases) are referred to as small proteins (SPs), however, as of date, there is no strict definition. In contrast to the small polypeptides that arise due to proteolytic activity or abrupt protein synthesis, SPs are coded by small open reading frames (sORFs) and are conventionally synthesized by ribosomes. PURPOSE OF THE REVIEW Although proteins that contain more than 100 amino acids have been studied exquisitely, studies on small proteins have been largely ignored, basically due to the unsuccessful detection of these SPs by traditional methodologies/techniques. Serendipitous observation of several small proteins and elucidation of their vital functions in cellular processes opened the floodgate of a new area of research on the new family of proteins called "Small proteins". Having known the significance of such SPs, several advanced techniques are being developed to precisely identify and characterize them. CONCLUSION Bacterial small proteins (BSPs) are being intensely investigated in recent days and that has brought the versatile role of BSPs into the limelight. In particular, identification of the fact that BSPs exhibit antimicrobial activity has further expanded its scope in the area of therapeutics. Since the microbiome plays an inevitable role in determining the outcome of personalized medicine, studies on the secretory small proteins of the microbiome are gaining momentum. This review discusses the importance of bacterial small proteins and peptides in terms of their therapeutic applications.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ruby Shelin
- Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute, Chettinad Academy of Research and Education, Kelambakkam, 603103, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
| | - Shanmugaraja Meenakshi
- Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Chettinad Hospital and Research Institute, Chettinad Academy of Research and Education, Kelambakkam, 603103, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
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28
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Zhang S, Mizushima N. The autophagy pathway beyond model organisms: an evolutionary perspective. Autophagy 2023; 19:1-2. [PMID: 36448729 PMCID: PMC9809957 DOI: 10.1080/15548627.2022.2153568] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/21/2022] [Revised: 11/23/2022] [Accepted: 11/25/2022] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
In this issue, we answer a frequently asked question regarding the evolution of the macroautophagy/autophagy pathway.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sidi Zhang
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Noboru Mizushima
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, the University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
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29
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Li Y, Liu H, Steenwyk JL, LaBella AL, Harrison MC, Groenewald M, Zhou X, Shen XX, Zhao T, Hittinger CT, Rokas A. Contrasting modes of macro and microsynteny evolution in a eukaryotic subphylum. Curr Biol 2022; 32:5335-5343.e4. [PMID: 36334587 PMCID: PMC10615371 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.10.025] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/07/2022] [Revised: 08/24/2022] [Accepted: 10/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/06/2022]
Abstract
Examination of the changes in order and arrangement of homologous genes is key for understanding the mechanisms of genome evolution in eukaryotes. Previous comparisons between eukaryotic genomes have revealed considerable conservation across species that diverged hundreds of millions of years ago (e.g., vertebrates,1,2,3 bilaterian animals,4,5 and filamentous fungi6). However, understanding how genome organization evolves within and between eukaryotic major lineages remains underexplored. We analyzed high-quality genomes of 120 representative budding yeast species (subphylum Saccharomycotina) spanning ∼400 million years of eukaryotic evolution to examine how their genome organization evolved and to compare it with the evolution of animal and plant genome organization.7 We found that the decay of both macrosynteny (the conservation of homologous chromosomes) and microsynteny (the conservation of local gene content and order) was strongly associated with evolutionary divergence across budding yeast major clades. However, although macrosynteny decayed very fast, within ∼100 million years, the microsynteny of many genes-especially genes in metabolic clusters (e.g., in the GAL gene cluster8)-was much more deeply conserved both within major clades and across the subphylum. We further found that when genomes with similar evolutionary divergence times were compared, budding yeasts had lower macrosynteny conservation than animals and filamentous fungi but higher conservation than angiosperms. In contrast, budding yeasts had levels of microsynteny conservation on par with mammals, whereas angiosperms exhibited very low conservation. Our results provide new insight into the tempo and mode of the evolution of gene and genome organization across an entire eukaryotic subphylum.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yuanning Li
- Institute of Marine Science and Technology, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China.
| | - Hongyue Liu
- Institute of Marine Science and Technology, Shandong University, 72 Binhai Road, Qingdao 266237, China
| | - Jacob L Steenwyk
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, VU Station B#35-1634, Nashville, TN 37235, USA; Vanderbilt Evolutionary Studies Initiative, Vanderbilt University, VU Station B#35-1634, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
| | - Abigail L LaBella
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, VU Station B#35-1634, Nashville, TN 37235, USA; Vanderbilt Evolutionary Studies Initiative, Vanderbilt University, VU Station B#35-1634, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
| | - Marie-Claire Harrison
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, VU Station B#35-1634, Nashville, TN 37235, USA; Vanderbilt Evolutionary Studies Initiative, Vanderbilt University, VU Station B#35-1634, Nashville, TN 37235, USA
| | - Marizeth Groenewald
- Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute, Uppsalalaan 8, 3584 CT Utrecht, the Netherlands
| | - Xiaofan Zhou
- Guangdong Laboratory for Lingnan Modern Agriculture, Guangdong Province Key Laboratory of Microbial Signals and Disease Control, Integrative Microbiology Research Centre, South China Agricultural University, 483 Wushan Road, Guangzhou 520643, China
| | - Xing-Xing Shen
- Key Laboratory of Biology of Crop Pathogens and Insects of Zhejiang Province, Institute of Insect Sciences, Zhejiang University, 866 Yuhangtang Road, Hangzhou 310058, China
| | - Tao Zhao
- State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Apple, College of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University, Taicheng Road 3, Yangling 712100, China
| | - Chris Todd Hittinger
- Laboratory of Genetics, DOE Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, Center for Genomic Science Innovation, J.F. Crow Institute for the Study of Evolution, Wisconsin Energy Institute, 1552 University Avenue, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI 53726-4084, USA
| | - Antonis Rokas
- Department of Biological Sciences, Vanderbilt University, VU Station B#35-1634, Nashville, TN 37235, USA; Vanderbilt Evolutionary Studies Initiative, Vanderbilt University, VU Station B#35-1634, Nashville, TN 37235, USA; Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies, Schloss-Wolfsbrunnenweg 35, 69118 Heidelberg, Germany.
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30
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Gulin Beljak V, Kulaš A, Lentendu G, Vlaičević B, Gligora Udovič M, Sertić Perić M, Rebrina F, Žutinić P, Orlić S, Matoničkin Kepčija R. Changes in Phylogenetic and Functional Diversity of Ciliates along the Course of a Mediterranean Karstic River. Microorganisms 2022; 10. [PMID: 36557746 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms10122493] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2022] [Revised: 12/04/2022] [Accepted: 12/14/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Ciliates are a group of phagotrophic protists found in a wide variety of ecosystems. This study builds on recent studies of ciliates in the Krka river and investigates changes in the phylogenetic and functional diversity of ciliates in biofilm to predict the phylogenetic and functional structure of ciliates in other karstic rivers. Biofilm samples were collected from four representative locations: upstream (Krka spring), midstream (Marasovine), and downstream (Roški slap, Skradinski buk) of the Krka river to test for differences in phylogenetic and functional diversity of ciliates in relation to location and positioning on tufa stones (light/dark-exposed side of tufa stone). Our results showed that Krka spring had higher phylogenetic species variability, lower phylogenetic diversity, and lower functional richness than Skradinski buk, suggesting phylogenetic overdispersal at Krka spring. This could be due to environmental filtering, competitive exclusion, or a combination of these factors. As the first study of its kind in the Mediterranean, our results shed light on the phylogenetic and functional diversity of ciliates in karst ecosystems and provide a basis for future ecological and conservation efforts.
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31
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Pushkareva E, Elster J, Holzinger A, Niedzwiedz S, Becker B. Biocrusts from Iceland and Svalbard: Does microbial community composition differ substantially? Front Microbiol 2022; 13:1048522. [PMID: 36590427 PMCID: PMC9800606 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.1048522] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/19/2022] [Accepted: 11/21/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
A wide range of microorganisms inhabit biocrusts of arctic and sub-arctic regions. These taxa live and thrive under extreme conditions and, moreover, play important roles in biogeochemical cycling. Nevertheless, their diversity and abundance remain ambiguous. Here, we studied microbial community composition in biocrusts from Svalbard and Iceland using amplicon sequencing and epifluorescence microscopy. Sequencing of 16S rRNA gene revealed the dominance of Chloroflexi in the biocrusts from Iceland and Longyearbyen, and Acidobacteria in the biocrusts from Ny-Ålesund and South Svalbard. Within the 18S rRNA gene sequencing dataset, Chloroplastida prevailed in all the samples with dominance of Trebouxiophyceae in the biocrusts from Ny-Ålesund and Embryophyta in the biocrusts from the other localities. Furthermore, cyanobacterial number of cells and biovolume exceeded the microalgal in the biocrusts. Community compositions in the studied sites were correlated to the measured chemical parameters such as conductivity, pH, soil organic matter and mineral nitrogen contents. In addition, co-occurrence analysis showed the dominance of positive potential interactions and, bacterial and eukaryotic taxa co-occurred more frequently together.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ekaterina Pushkareva
- Department of Biology, Botanical Institute, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany,*Correspondence: Ekaterina Pushkareva,
| | - Josef Elster
- Institute of Botany, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Trebon, Czechia,Centre for Polar Ecology, University of South Bohemia, Ceske Budejovice, Czechia
| | - Andreas Holzinger
- Functional Plant Biology, Department of Botany, University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria
| | - Sarina Niedzwiedz
- Marine Botany, Faculty of Biology and Chemistry & MARUM, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
| | - Burkhard Becker
- Department of Biology, Botanical Institute, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany
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32
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Zhang S, Yazaki E, Sakamoto H, Yamamoto H, Mizushima N. Evolutionary diversification of the autophagy-related ubiquitin-like conjugation systems. Autophagy 2022; 18:2969-2984. [PMID: 35427200 PMCID: PMC9673942 DOI: 10.1080/15548627.2022.2059168] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Two autophagy-related (ATG) ubiquitin-like conjugation systems, the ATG12 and ATG8 systems, play important roles in macroautophagy. While multiple duplications and losses of the ATG conjugation system proteins are found in different lineages, the extent to which the underlying systems diversified across eukaryotes is not fully understood. Here, in order to understand the evolution of the ATG conjugation systems, we constructed a transcriptome database consisting of 94 eukaryotic species covering major eukaryotic clades and systematically identified ATG conjugation system components. Both ATG10 and the C-terminal glycine of ATG12 are essential for the canonical ubiquitin-like conjugation of ATG12 and ATG5. However, loss of ATG10 or the C-terminal glycine of ATG12 occurred at least 16 times in a wide range of lineages, suggesting that possible covalent-to-non-covalent transition is not limited to the species that we previously reported such as Alveolata and some yeast species. Some species have only the ATG8 system (with conjugation enzymes) or only ATG8 (without conjugation enzymes). More than 10 species have ATG8 homologs without the conserved C-terminal glycine, and Tetrahymena has an ATG8 homolog with a predicted transmembrane domain, which may be able to anchor to the membrane independent of the ATG conjugation systems. We discuss the possibility that the ancestor of the ATG12 and ATG8 systems is more similar to ATG8. Overall, our study offers a whole picture of the evolution and diversity of the ATG conjugation systems among eukaryotes, and provides evidence that functional diversifications of the systems are more common than previously thought.Abbreviations: APEAR: ATG8-PE association region; ATG: autophagy-related; LIR: LC3-interacting region; NEDD8: neural precursor cell expressed, developmentally down-regulated gene 8; PE: phosphatidylethanolamine; SAMP: small archaeal modifier protein; SAR: Stramenopiles, Alveolata, and Rhizaria; SMC: structural maintenance of chromosomes; SUMO: small ubiquitin like modifier; TACK: Thaumarchaeota, Aigarchaeota, Crenarchaeota, and Korarchaeota; UBA: ubiquitin like modifier activating enzyme; UFM: ubiquitin fold modifier; URM: ubiquitin related modifier.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sidi Zhang
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Euki Yazaki
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan,Interdisciplinary Theoretical and Mathematical Sciences (iTHEMS), RIKEN, Saitama, Japan
| | - Hirokazu Sakamoto
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan,Department of Biomedical Chemistry, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan,Department of Infection and Host Defense, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University, Chiba, Japan
| | - Hayashi Yamamoto
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan
| | - Noboru Mizushima
- Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan,CONTACT Noboru Mizushima Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo113-0033, Japan
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33
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Melikhova AV, Anashkina AA, Il'icheva IA. Evolutionary Invariant of the Structure of DNA Double Helix in RNAP II Core Promoters. Int J Mol Sci 2022; 23:10873. [PMID: 36142782 DOI: 10.3390/ijms231810873] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/25/2022] [Revised: 09/07/2022] [Accepted: 09/13/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Eukaryotic and archaeal RNA polymerase II (POL II) machinery is highly conserved, regardless of the extreme changes in promoter sequences in different organisms. The goal of our work is to find the cause of this conservatism. The representative sets of aligned promoter sequences of fifteen organisms belonging to different evolutional stages were studied. Their textual profiles, as well as profiles of the indexes that characterize the secondary structure and the mechanical and physicochemical properties, were analyzed. The evolutionarily stable, extremely heterogeneous special secondary structure of POL II core promoters was revealed, which includes two singular regions—hexanucleotide “INR” around TSS and octanucleotide “TATA element” of about −28 bp upstream. Such structures may have developed at some stage of evolution. It turned out to be so well matched for the pre-initiation complex formation and the subsequent initiation of transcription for POL II machinery that in the course of evolution there were selected only those nucleotide sequences that were able to reproduce these structural properties. The individual features of specific sequences representing the singular region of the promoter of each gene can affect the kinetics of DNA-protein complex formation and facilitate strand separation in double-stranded DNA at the TSS position.
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34
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Bachmann M, Wensch-Dorendorf M, Kuhnitzsch C, Kleinsteuber S, Popp D, Thierbach A, Martens SD, Steinhöfel O, Zeyner A. Changes in Composition and Diversity of Epiphytic Microorganisms on Field Pea Seeds, Partial Crop Peas, and Whole Crop Peas during Maturation and Ensiling with or without Lactic Acid Bacteria Inoculant. Microbiol Spectr 2022; 10:e0095322. [PMID: 35946942 PMCID: PMC9431205 DOI: 10.1128/spectrum.00953-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/02/2022] [Accepted: 07/14/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
The present study was conducted under the hypothesis that, in field peas, type of plant material, stage of maturity, ensiling, silage additive, and aerobic stress affect the composition and diversity of epiphytic microbial communities. Epiphytic microbial composition and diversity of pea seeds, partial crop peas, and whole crop peas was analyzed at different stages of late maturity, before and after ensiling, and with or without the use of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) as inoculant. Suitable combinations among pea crop variants, maturity stages, and inoculant use for the production of stable silages with sufficient aerobic stability after opening and during feed-out were identified. Genomic DNA was extracted, and 16S and 18S rRNA gene amplicons were sequenced. To assess the quality of the various silages, nutrient concentration, pH value, concentration of lactic acid, short chain fatty acids, and alcohols, and aerobic stability were determined. Pea seeds were barely colonized by epiphytic microorganisms. In partial and whole crop peas, composition and α-diversity (Shannon index) of bacterial communities did not differ between crop variants but differed among maturity stages. Epiphytic eukaryotes were rarely found on partial and whole crop peas. Bacterial composition and α-diversity were affected by ensiling and subsequent aerobic storage. In partial and whole crop peas, plant maturation caused an increase of the relative abundance of naturally occurring LAB (Weissella, Pediococcus, and Lactobacillus spp.). As a possible result, natural LAB support stable ensiling conditions even without the use of inoculants beginning with a maturity of 78 on the BBCH scale. This corresponded with a dry matter (DM) concentration of 341 and 363 g/kg in partial and whole crop peas, respectively. Addition of LAB inoculants, however, reduced ammonia, acetic acid, and butanol concentrations, and supported aerobic stability. Earlier stages of plant maturity (BBCH 76 and 77, 300 g DM/kg or less) were more prone to microbial spoilage. Stable pea seed silages can be produced at a maturity between BBCH 78 (427 g DM/kg) and 79 (549 g DM/kg), but they undoubtedly require LAB inoculation or application of other ensiling agents. IMPORTANCE Field peas are important protein suppliers for human and animal nutrition. They can be grown in many areas of the world, which may reduce imports of protein plants and has beneficial economic and ecological effects. Ensiling is a method of preserving feed that can be implemented easily and cost-effectively at the farm. Peas harvested as seeds, partial crop, or whole crop at different maturities enable a wide range of applications. The study characterized epiphytic microbial communities on peas in terms of composition and diversity depending on the maturity of the plants and feed conservation by ensiling as they play an essential role for the production of silages. Even if this study did not consider year, site, or cultivar effects, the results would show which part of the plant is probably well suited for the production of stable and high-quality silages and at which stage of maturity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Martin Bachmann
- Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Halle (Saale), Germany
| | - Monika Wensch-Dorendorf
- Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Halle (Saale), Germany
| | | | - Sabine Kleinsteuber
- Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Department of Environmental Microbiology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Denny Popp
- Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Department of Environmental Microbiology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Annabel Thierbach
- Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Halle (Saale), Germany
| | - Siriwan D. Martens
- Saxon State Office for Environment, Agriculture and Geology, Köllitsch, Germany
| | - Olaf Steinhöfel
- Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Halle (Saale), Germany
- Saxon State Office for Environment, Agriculture and Geology, Köllitsch, Germany
| | - Annette Zeyner
- Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, Institute of Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, Halle (Saale), Germany
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Zhang Y, Li F, Chen Y, Guan LL. The Effects of Breed and Residual Feed Intake Divergence on the Abundance and Active Population of Rumen Microbiota in Beef Cattle. Animals (Basel) 2022; 12:ani12151966. [PMID: 35953955 PMCID: PMC9367312 DOI: 10.3390/ani12151966] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2022] [Revised: 07/30/2022] [Accepted: 08/01/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
To assess the effects of residual feed intake (RFI) and breed on rumen microbiota, the abundance (DNA) and active population (RNA) of the total bacteria, archaea, protozoa, and fungi in the rumen of 96 beef steers from three different breeds (Angus (AN), Charolais (CH), and Kinsella Composite (KC)), and divergent RFIs (High vs Low), were estimated by measuring their respective maker gene copies using qRT-PCR. All experimental animals were kept under the same feedlot condition and fed with the same high-energy finishing diet. Rumen content samples were collected at slaughter and used for the extraction of genetic material (DNA and RNA) and further analysis. There was a significant difference (p < 0.01) between the marker gene copies detected for abundance and active populations for all four microbial groups. AN steers had a higher abundance of bacteria (p < 0.05) and a lower abundance of eukaryotes (protozoa and fungi, p < 0.05) compared to KC steers, while the abundance of protozoa (p < 0.05) in the AN cattle and fungi (p < 0.05) in the KC cattle were lower and higher, respectively, than those in the CH steers. Meanwhile, the active populations of bacteria, archaea, and protozoa in the KC steers were significantly lower than those in the AN and CH animals (p < 0.01). This work demonstrates that cattle breed can affect rumen microbiota at both the abundance and activity level. The revealed highly active protozoal populations indicate their important role in rumen microbial fermentation under a feedlot diet, which warrants further study.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yawei Zhang
- College of Animal Science, Shanxi Agricultural University, Taiyuan 030031, China;
| | - Fuyong Li
- Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2P5, Canada; (F.L.); (Y.C.)
| | - Yanhong Chen
- Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2P5, Canada; (F.L.); (Y.C.)
| | - Le-Luo Guan
- Department of Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2P5, Canada; (F.L.); (Y.C.)
- Correspondence:
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Schmidt A, Schneider C, Decker P, Hohberg K, Römbke J, Lehmitz R, Bálint M. Shotgun metagenomics of soil invertebrate communities reflects taxonomy, biomass, and reference genome properties. Ecol Evol 2022; 12:e8991. [PMID: 35784064 PMCID: PMC9170594 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.8991] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/27/2021] [Revised: 05/11/2022] [Accepted: 05/17/2022] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Metagenomics - shotgun sequencing of all DNA fragments from a community DNA extract - is routinely used to describe the composition, structure, and function of microorganism communities. Advances in DNA sequencing and the availability of genome databases increasingly allow the use of shotgun metagenomics on eukaryotic communities. Metagenomics offers major advances in the recovery of biomass relationships in a sample, in comparison to taxonomic marker gene-based approaches (metabarcoding). However, little is known about the factors which influence metagenomics data from eukaryotic communities, such as differences among organism groups, the properties of reference genomes, and genome assemblies.We evaluated how shotgun metagenomics records composition and biomass in artificial soil invertebrate communities at different sequencing efforts. We generated mock communities of controlled biomass ratios from 28 species from all major soil mesofauna groups: mites, springtails, nematodes, tardigrades, and potworms. We shotgun sequenced these communities and taxonomically assigned them with a database of over 270 soil invertebrate genomes.We recovered over 95% of the species, and observed relatively high false-positive detection rates. We found strong differences in reads assigned to different taxa, with some groups (e.g., springtails) consistently attracting more hits than others (e.g., enchytraeids). Original biomass could be predicted from read counts after considering these taxon-specific differences. Species with larger genomes, and with more complete assemblies, consistently attracted more reads than species with smaller genomes. The GC content of the genome assemblies had no effect on the biomass-read relationships. Results were similar among different sequencing efforts.The results show considerable differences in taxon recovery and taxon specificity of biomass recovery from metagenomic sequence data. The properties of reference genomes and genome assemblies also influence biomass recovery, and they should be considered in metagenomic studies of eukaryotes. We show that low- and high-sequencing efforts yield similar results, suggesting high cost-efficiency of metagenomics for eukaryotic communities. We provide a brief roadmap for investigating factors which influence metagenomics-based eukaryotic community reconstructions. Understanding these factors is timely as accessibility of DNA sequencing and momentum for reference genomes projects show a future where the taxonomic assignment of DNA from any community sample becomes a reality.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alexandra Schmidt
- Senckenberg Biodiversity Climate Research CenterFrankfurt am MainGermany
- Biology DepartmentJ.W. Goethe UniversityFrankfurt am MainGermany
- Loewe Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE‐TBG)Frankfurt am MainGermany
- Limnological Institute (Environmental Genomics)University of KonstanzKonstanzGermany
| | - Clément Schneider
- Loewe Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE‐TBG)Frankfurt am MainGermany
- Soil Zoology DepartmentSenckenberg Museum of Natural History GörlitzGörlitzGermany
| | - Peter Decker
- Loewe Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE‐TBG)Frankfurt am MainGermany
- Blumenstr. 5GörlitzGermany
| | - Karin Hohberg
- Loewe Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE‐TBG)Frankfurt am MainGermany
- Soil Zoology DepartmentSenckenberg Museum of Natural History GörlitzGörlitzGermany
| | - Jörg Römbke
- ECT Oekotoxikologie GmbHFlörsheim am MainGermany
| | - Ricarda Lehmitz
- Loewe Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE‐TBG)Frankfurt am MainGermany
- Soil Zoology DepartmentSenckenberg Museum of Natural History GörlitzGörlitzGermany
| | - Miklós Bálint
- Senckenberg Biodiversity Climate Research CenterFrankfurt am MainGermany
- Loewe Center for Translational Biodiversity Genomics (LOEWE‐TBG)Frankfurt am MainGermany
- Institute for Insect BiotechnologyJustus Liebig UniversityGießenGermany
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Inturi R, Lara S, Derweesh M, Chi CN. Structural Characterization of a Thorarchaeota Profilin Indicates Eukaryotic-Like Features but with an Extended N-Terminus. Adv Biol (Weinh) 2022; 6:e2101323. [PMID: 35429148 DOI: 10.1002/adbi.202101323] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2021] [Revised: 02/24/2022] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
The emergence of the first eukaryotic cell is preceded by evolutionary events, which are still highly debatable. Clues of the exact sequence of events are beginning to emerge. Recent metagenomics analyses has uncovered the Asgard super-phylum as the closest yet known archaea host of eukaryotes. Some of these have been tested and confirmed experimentally. However, the bulk of eukaryotic signature proteins predicted to be encoded by the Asgard super-phylum have not been studied, and their true functions, at least in the context of a eukaryotic cell, are still elusive. For example, there are several different variants of the profilin within each Asgardian Achaea, and there are some conflicting results of their actual roles. Here, the 3D structure of profilin from Thorarchaeota is determined by nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and shows that this profilin has a eukaryotic-like profilin with a rigid core and an extended N-terminus previously implicated in polyproline binding. In addition, it is also shown that Thorarchaeota Profilin co-localizes with eukaryotic actin in cultured HeLa cells. This finding reaffirms the notion that Asgardian encoded proteins possess eukaryotic-like characteristics and strengthen the likely existence of a complex cytoskeleton already in a last eukaryotic common ancestor.
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Affiliation(s)
- Raviteja Inturi
- Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, BMC Box 582, Uppsala, SE-75123, Sweden
| | - Sandra Lara
- Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Uppsala University, BMC Box 582, Uppsala, SE-75123, Sweden
| | - Mahmoud Derweesh
- Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, BMC Box 582, Uppsala, SE-75123, Sweden.,Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Alazhr University, 55QC+8Q, Asyut 2, Assiut, Egypt
| | - Celestine N Chi
- Department of Medical Biochemistry and Microbiology, Uppsala University, BMC Box 582, Uppsala, SE-75123, Sweden
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Abstract
Although it is widely taught that all modern life descended via modification from a last universal common ancestor (LUCA), this dominant paradigm is yet to provide a generally accepted explanation for the chasm in design between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Counter to this dominant paradigm, the viral eukaryogenesis (VE) hypothesis proposes that the eukaryotes originated as an emergent superorganism and thus did not evolve from LUCA via descent with incremental modification. According to the VE hypothesis, the eukaryotic nucleus descends from a viral factory, the mitochondrion descends from an enslaved alpha-proteobacteria and the cytoplasm and plasma membrane descend from an archaeal host. A virus initiated the eukaryogenesis process by colonising an archaeal host to create a virocell that had its metabolism reprogrammed to support the viral factory. Subsequently, viral processes facilitated the entry of a bacterium into the archaeal cytoplasm which was also eventually reprogrammed to support the viral factory. As the viral factory increased control of the consortium, the archaeal genome was lost, the bacterial genome was greatly reduced and the viral factory eventually evolved into the nucleus. It is proposed that the interaction between these three simple components generated a superorganism whose emergent properties allowed the evolution of eukaryotic complexity. If the radical tenets of the VE hypothesis are ultimately accepted, current biological paradigms regarding viruses, cell theory, LUCA and the universal Tree of Life (ToL) should be fundamentally altered or completely abandoned.
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Abstract
Nonsense mutations are a type of mutations which results in a premature termination codon occurrence. In general, these mutations have been considered to be among the most harmful ones which lead to premature protein translation termination and result in shortened nonfunctional polypeptide. However, there is evidence that not all nonsense mutations are harmful as well as some molecular mechanisms exist which allow to avoid pathogenic effects of these mutations. This review addresses relevant information on nonsense mutations in eukaryotic genomes, characteristics of these mutations, and different molecular mechanisms preventing or mitigating harmful effects thereof.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nadezhda A Potapova
- Kharkevich Institute for Information Transmission Problems (IITP), Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 127051, Russia.
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40
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Ender A, Grafl N, Kolberg T, Findeiß S, Stadler PF, Mörl M. Synthetic riboswitches for the analysis of tRNA processing by eukaryotic RNase P enzymes. RNA 2022; 28:551-567. [PMID: 35022261 PMCID: PMC8925977 DOI: 10.1261/rna.078814.121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/26/2021] [Accepted: 12/21/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Removal of the 5'-leader region is an essential step in the maturation of tRNA molecules in all domains of life. This reaction is catalyzed by various RNase P activities, ranging from ribonucleoproteins with ribozyme activity to protein-only forms. In Escherichia coli, the efficiency of RNase P-mediated cleavage can be controlled by computationally designed riboswitch elements in a ligand-dependent way, where the 5'-leader sequence of a tRNA precursor is either sequestered in a hairpin structure or presented as a single-stranded region accessible for maturation. In the presented work, the regulatory potential of such artificial constructs is tested on different forms of eukaryotic RNase P enzymes-two protein-only RNase P enzymes (PRORP1 and PRORP2) from Arabidopsis thaliana and the ribonucleoprotein of Homo sapiens The PRORP enzymes were analyzed in vitro as well as in vivo in a bacterial RNase P complementation system. We also tested in HEK293T cells whether the riboswitches remain functional with human nuclear RNase P. While the regulatory principle of the synthetic riboswitches applies for all tested RNase P enzymes, the results also show differences in the substrate requirements of the individual enzyme versions. Hence, such designed RNase P riboswitches represent a novel tool to investigate the impact of the structural composition of the 5'-leader on substrate recognition by different types of RNase P enzymes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anna Ender
- Institute for Biochemistry, Leipzig University, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Nadine Grafl
- Institute for Biochemistry, Leipzig University, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Tim Kolberg
- Institute for Biochemistry, Leipzig University, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Sven Findeiß
- Bioinformatics Group, Department of Computer Science and Interdisciplinary Center for Bioinformatics, Leipzig University, 04107 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Peter F Stadler
- Bioinformatics Group, Department of Computer Science and Interdisciplinary Center for Bioinformatics, Leipzig University, 04107 Leipzig, Germany
- Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Science, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Institute for Theoretical Chemistry, University of Vienna, A-1090 Vienna, Austria
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, New Mexico 87501, USA
| | - Mario Mörl
- Institute for Biochemistry, Leipzig University, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
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41
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Jüttner M, Ferreira-Cerca S. Looking through the lens of the ribosome biogenesis evolutionary history: possible implications for archaeal phylogeny and eukaryogenesis. Mol Biol Evol 2022; 39:6547259. [PMID: 35275997 PMCID: PMC8997704 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msac054] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Our understanding of microbial diversity and its evolutionary relationships has increased substantially over the last decade. Such an understanding has been greatly fueled by culture-independent metagenomics analyses. However, the outcome of some of these studies and their biological and evolutionary implications, such as the origin of the eukaryotic lineage from the recently discovered archaeal Asgard superphylum, is debated. The sequences of the ribosomal constituents are amongst the most used phylogenetic markers. However, the functional consequences underlying the analysed sequence diversity and their putative evolutionary implications are essentially not taken into consideration. Here, we propose to exploit additional functional hallmarks of ribosome biogenesis to help disentangle competing evolutionary hypotheses. Using selected examples, such as the multiple origins of halophily in archaea or the evolutionary relationship between the Asgard archaea and Eukaryotes, we illustrate and discuss how function-aware phylogenetic framework can contribute to refining our understanding of archaeal phylogeny and the origin of eukaryotic cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Jüttner
- Regensburg Center for Biochemistry, Biochemistry III - Institute for Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
| | - Sébastien Ferreira-Cerca
- Regensburg Center for Biochemistry, Biochemistry III - Institute for Biochemistry, Genetics and Microbiology, University of Regensburg, Universitätsstraße 31, 93053 Regensburg, Germany
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42
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Stüeken EE, Viehmann S, Hohl SV. Contrasting nutrient availability between marine and brackish waters in the late Mesoproterozoic: Evidence from the Paranoá Group, Brazil. Geobiology 2022; 20:159-174. [PMID: 34661335 DOI: 10.1111/gbi.12478] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/24/2021] [Revised: 10/02/2021] [Accepted: 10/06/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Understanding the delayed rise of eukaryotic life on Earth is one of the most fundamental questions about biological evolution. Numerous studies have presented evidence for oxygen and nutrient limitations in seawater during the Mesoproterozoic era, indicating that open marine settings may not have been able to sustain a eukaryotic biosphere with complex, multicellular organisms. However, many of these data sets represent restricted marine basins, which may bias our view of habitability. Furthermore, it remains untested whether rivers could have supplied significant nutrient fluxes to coastal habitats. To better characterize the sources of the major nutrients nitrogen and phosphorus, we turned to the late Mesoproterozoic Paranoá Group in Brazil (~1.1 Ga), which was deposited on a passive margin of the São Francisco craton. We present carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope data from an open shelf setting (Fazenda Funil) and from a brackish-water environment with significant riverine input (São Gabriel). Our results show that waters were well-oxygenated and nitrate was bioavailable in the open ocean setting at Fazenda Funil; the redoxcline appears to have been deeper and further offshore compared to restricted marine basins elsewhere in the Mesoproterozoic. In contrast, the brackish site at São Gabriel received only limited input of marine nitrate and sulphate. Nevertheless, previous reports of acritarchs reveal that this brackish-water setting was habitable to eukaryotic life. Paired with previously published cadmium isotope data, which can be used as a proxy for phosphorus cycling, our results suggest that complex organisms were perhaps not strictly dependent on marine nutrient supplies. Riverine influxes of P and possibly other nutrients likely rendered coastal waters perhaps equally habitable to the Mesoproterozoic open ocean. This conclusion supports the notion that eukaryotic organisms may have thrived in brackish or perhaps even freshwater environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva E Stüeken
- School of Earth & Environmental Sciences, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
| | - Sebastian Viehmann
- Department of Geology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- Department of Lithospheric Research, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
| | - Simon V Hohl
- State Key Laboratory of Marine Geology, Tongji University, Shanghai, China
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Suter EA, Pachiadaki M, Taylor GT, Edgcomb VP. Eukaryotic Parasites Are Integral to a Productive Microbial Food Web in Oxygen-Depleted Waters. Front Microbiol 2022; 12:764605. [PMID: 35069470 PMCID: PMC8770914 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.764605] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2021] [Accepted: 12/13/2021] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Oxygen-depleted water columns (ODWCs) host a diverse community of eukaryotic protists that change dramatically in composition over the oxic-anoxic gradient. In the permanently anoxic Cariaco Basin, peaks in eukaryotic diversity occurred in layers where dark microbial activity (chemoautotrophy and heterotrophy) were highest, suggesting a link between prokaryotic activity and trophic associations with protists. Using 18S rRNA gene sequencing, parasites and especially the obligate parasitic clade, Syndiniales, appear to be particularly abundant, suggesting parasitism is an important, but overlooked interaction in ODWC food webs. Syndiniales were also associated with certain prokaryotic groups that are often found in ODWCs, including Marinimicrobia and Marine Group II archaea, evocative of feedbacks between parasitic infection events, release of organic matter, and prokaryotic assimilative activity. In a network analysis that included all three domains of life, bacterial and archaeal taxa were putative bottleneck and hub species, while a large proportion of edges were connected to eukaryotic nodes. Inclusion of parasites resulted in a more complex network with longer path lengths between members. Together, these results suggest that protists, and especially protistan parasites, play an important role in maintaining microbial food web complexity, particularly in ODWCs, where protist diversity and microbial productivity are high, but energy resources are limited relative to euphotic waters.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth A Suter
- Biology, Chemistry & Environmental Studies Department, Center for Environmental Research and Coastal Oceans Monitoring, Molloy College, Rockville Centre, NY, United States.,School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States
| | - Maria Pachiadaki
- Department of Biology, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States
| | - Gordon T Taylor
- School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY, United States
| | - Virginia P Edgcomb
- Department of Geology & Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA, United States
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Shino G, Takada S. Corrigendum: Modeling DNA Opening in the Eukaryotic Transcription Initiation Complexes via Coarse-Grained Models. Front Mol Biosci 2021; 8:817343. [PMID: 34950705 PMCID: PMC8690166 DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2021.817343] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/18/2021] [Accepted: 11/19/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2021.772486.].
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Affiliation(s)
- Genki Shino
- Department of Biophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
| | - Shoji Takada
- Department of Biophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
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45
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Lejars M, Kobayashi A, Hajnsdorf E. RNase III, Ribosome Biogenesis and Beyond. Microorganisms 2021; 9:2608. [PMID: 34946208 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms9122608] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2021] [Revised: 12/12/2021] [Accepted: 12/15/2021] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
The ribosome is the universal catalyst for protein synthesis. Despite extensive studies, the diversity of structures and functions of this ribonucleoprotein is yet to be fully understood. Deciphering the biogenesis of the ribosome in a step-by-step manner revealed that this complexity is achieved through a plethora of effectors involved in the maturation and assembly of ribosomal RNAs and proteins. Conserved from bacteria to eukaryotes, double-stranded specific RNase III enzymes play a large role in the regulation of gene expression and the processing of ribosomal RNAs. In this review, we describe the canonical role of RNase III in the biogenesis of the ribosome comparing conserved and unique features from bacteria to eukaryotes. Furthermore, we report additional roles in ribosome biogenesis re-enforcing the importance of RNase III.
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Toustou C, Walet-Balieu ML, Kiefer-Meyer MC, Houdou M, Lerouge P, Foulquier F, Bardor M. Towards understanding the extensive diversity of protein N-glycan structures in eukaryotes. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2021; 97:732-748. [PMID: 34873817 PMCID: PMC9300197 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12820] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/05/2021] [Revised: 11/04/2021] [Accepted: 11/24/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
N‐glycosylation is an important post‐translational modification of proteins that has been highly conserved during evolution and is found in Eukaryota, Bacteria and Archaea. In eukaryotes, N‐glycan processing is sequential, involving multiple specific steps within the secretory pathway as proteins travel through the endoplasmic reticulum and the Golgi apparatus. In this review, we first summarize the different steps of the N‐glycan processing and further describe recent findings regarding the diversity of N‐glycan structures in eukaryotic clades. This comparison allows us to explore the different regulation mechanisms of N‐glycan processing among eukaryotic clades. Recent findings regarding the regulation of protein N‐glycosylation are highlighted, especially the regulation of the biosynthesis of complex‐type N‐glycans through manganese and calcium homeostasis and the specific role of transmembrane protein 165 (TMEM165) for which homologous sequences have been identified in several eukaryotic clades. Further research will be required to characterize the function of TMEM165 homologous sequences in different eukaryotic clades.
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Affiliation(s)
- Charlotte Toustou
- Normandie Univ, UNIROUEN, Laboratoire Glycobiologie et Matrice Extracellulaire végétale (Glyco-MEV) EA4358, Mont-Saint-Aignan, 76821, France
| | - Marie-Laure Walet-Balieu
- Normandie Univ, UNIROUEN, Laboratoire Glycobiologie et Matrice Extracellulaire végétale (Glyco-MEV) EA4358, Mont-Saint-Aignan, 76821, France
| | - Marie-Christine Kiefer-Meyer
- Normandie Univ, UNIROUEN, Laboratoire Glycobiologie et Matrice Extracellulaire végétale (Glyco-MEV) EA4358, Mont-Saint-Aignan, 76821, France
| | - Marine Houdou
- Univ Lille, CNRS, UMR 8576 - UGSF - Unité de Glycobiologie Structurale et Fonctionnelle, Lille, F-59000, France.,Laboratory of Cellular Transport Systems, Department of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, KU Leuven, Herestraat 49, Box 802, Leuven, 3000, Belgium
| | - Patrice Lerouge
- Normandie Univ, UNIROUEN, Laboratoire Glycobiologie et Matrice Extracellulaire végétale (Glyco-MEV) EA4358, Mont-Saint-Aignan, 76821, France
| | - François Foulquier
- Univ Lille, CNRS, UMR 8576 - UGSF - Unité de Glycobiologie Structurale et Fonctionnelle, Lille, F-59000, France
| | - Muriel Bardor
- Normandie Univ, UNIROUEN, Laboratoire Glycobiologie et Matrice Extracellulaire végétale (Glyco-MEV) EA4358, Mont-Saint-Aignan, 76821, France.,Univ Lille, CNRS, UMR 8576 - UGSF - Unité de Glycobiologie Structurale et Fonctionnelle, Lille, F-59000, France
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Shino G, Takada S. Modeling DNA Opening in the Eukaryotic Transcription Initiation Complexes via Coarse-Grained Models. Front Mol Biosci 2021; 8:772486. [PMID: 34869598 PMCID: PMC8636136 DOI: 10.3389/fmolb.2021.772486] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/08/2021] [Accepted: 10/07/2021] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Recently, the molecular mechanisms of transcription initiation have been intensively studied. Especially, the cryo-electron microscopy revealed atomic structure details in key states in the eukaryotic transcription initiation. Yet, the dynamic processes of the promoter DNA opening in the pre-initiation complex remain obscured. In this study, based on the three cryo-electron microscopic yeast structures for the closed, open, and initially transcribing complexes, we performed multiscale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations to model structures and dynamic processes of DNA opening. Combining coarse-grained and all-atom MD simulations, we first obtained the atomic model for the DNA bubble in the open complexes. Then, in the MD simulation from the open to the initially transcribing complexes, we found a previously unidentified intermediate state which is formed by the bottleneck in the fork loop 1 of Pol II: The loop opening triggered the escape from the intermediate, serving as a gatekeeper of the promoter DNA opening. In the initially transcribing complex, the non-template DNA strand passes a groove made of the protrusion, the lobe, and the fork of Rpb2 subunit of Pol II, in which several positively charged and highly conserved residues exhibit key interactions to the non-template DNA strand. The back-mapped all-atom models provided further insights on atomistic interactions such as hydrogen bonding and can be used for future simulations.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Shoji Takada
- Department of Biophysics, Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
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Shuvalova JV, Nagovitsin KE, Duda JP, Parkhaev PY. Early Eukaryotes in the Lakhanda Biota (Mesoproterozoic, Southeastern Siberia)-Morphological and Geochemical Evidence. Dokl Biol Sci 2021; 500:127-132. [PMID: 34731376 DOI: 10.1134/s0012496621050100] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/11/2021] [Revised: 05/31/2021] [Accepted: 05/31/2021] [Indexed: 11/22/2022]
Abstract
The Mesoproterozoic Lakhanda Group (~1030 Ma) preserves one of the most diverse communities of pre-Ediacaran eukaryotes. More precisely, the Lakhanda Biota includes more than twenty taxa that have been assigned to eukaryotes with different degrees of confidence. Eight of these taxa meet current criteria for the identification of eukaryotic fossils in ancient records. These include previously described fossils such as ornamented acritarchs (Valeria lophostriata, Trachyhystrichosphaera aimika), filamentous coenocytic organisms (Aimonema ramosa, Palaeovaucheria clavata), as well as fossils with smooth-walled envelopes and single outgrowth structures (Caudosphaera expansa, Germinosphaera bispinosa, and Jacutianema solubila). In addition to these, we found as yet undescribed fossils which share remarkable similarities with Ourasphaira giraldae, a possible higher fungi species known from the (?) Meso- to Neoproterozoic of Arctic Canada. Regardless of the exact systematic affinity, these fossils can confidently be assigned to eukaryotes because of the size and high morphological complexity. Intriguingly, the organic record of the Lakhanda Formation lacks biomarkers indicative of eukaryotes (that is, regular steranes). This finding would be in line with the idea that eukaryotes were present but not significant in Mesoproterozoic marine ecosystems. However, preliminary data from an ongoing study indicate an advanced thermal maturity of the organic matter, emphasizing that this conclusion might not be drawn with absolute confidence.
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Affiliation(s)
- J V Shuvalova
- Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia. .,Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Australia.
| | - K E Nagovitsin
- Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia.,Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia
| | - J-P Duda
- Sedimentology and Organic Geochemistry, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - P Yu Parkhaev
- Borissiak Paleontological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
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49
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Pushkareva E, Barrantes I, Leinweber P, Karsten U. Microbial Diversity in Subarctic Biocrusts from West Iceland following an Elevation Gradient. Microorganisms 2021; 9:2195. [PMID: 34835321 DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms9112195] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/30/2021] [Revised: 10/15/2021] [Accepted: 10/17/2021] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are essential communities of organisms in the Icelandic soil ecosystem, as they prevent erosion and cryoturbation and provide nutrients to vascular plants. However, biocrust microbial composition in Iceland remains understudied. To address this gap in knowledge, we applied high-throughput sequencing to study microbial community composition in biocrusts collected along an elevation gradient (11–157 m a.s.l.) stretching away perpendicular to the marine coast. Four groups of organisms were targeted: bacteria and cyanobacteria (16S rRNA gene), fungi (transcribed spacer region), and other eukaryotes (18S rRNA gene). The amplicon sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene revealed the dominance of Proteobacteria, Bacteroidetes, and Actinobacteria. Within the cyanobacteria, filamentous forms from the orders Synechococcales and Oscillatoriales prevailed. Furthermore, fungi in the biocrusts were dominated by Ascomycota, while the majority of reads obtained from sequencing of the 18S rRNA gene belonged to Archaeplastida. In addition, microbial photoautotrophs isolated from the biocrusts were assigned to the cyanobacterial genera Phormidesmis, Microcoleus, Wilmottia, and Oscillatoria and to two microalgal phyla Chlorophyta and Charophyta. In general, the taxonomic diversity of microorganisms in the biocrusts increased following the elevation gradient and community composition differed among the sites, suggesting that microclimatic and soil parameters might shape biocrust microbiota.
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50
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Sievers A, Sauer L, Hausmann M, Hildenbrand G. Eukaryotic Genomes Show Strong Evolutionary Conservation of k-mer Composition and Correlation Contributions between Introns and Intergenic Regions. Genes (Basel) 2021; 12:1571. [PMID: 34680967 DOI: 10.3390/genes12101571] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/13/2021] [Revised: 09/24/2021] [Accepted: 09/29/2021] [Indexed: 01/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Several strongly conserved DNA sequence patterns in and between introns and intergenic regions (IIRs) consisting of short tandem repeats (STRs) with repeat lengths <3 bp have already been described in the kingdom of Animalia. In this work, we expanded the search and analysis of conserved DNA sequence patterns to a wider range of eukaryotic genomes. Our aims were to confirm the conservation of these patterns, to support the hypothesis on their functional constraints and/or the identification of unknown patterns. We pairwise compared genomic DNA sequences of genes, exons, CDS, introns and intergenic regions of 34 Embryophyta (land plants), 30 Protista and 29 Fungi using established k-mer-based (alignment-free) comparison methods. Additionally, the results were compared with values derived for Animalia in former studies. We confirmed strong correlations between the sequence structures of IIRs spanning over the entire domain of Eukaryotes. We found that the high correlations within introns, intergenic regions and between the two are a result of conserved abundancies of STRs with repeat units ≤2 bp (e.g., (AT)n). For some sequence patterns and their inverse complementary sequences, we found a violation of equal distribution on complementary DNA strands in a subset of genomes. Looking at mismatches within the identified STR patterns, we found specific preferences for certain nucleotides stable over all four phylogenetic kingdoms. We conclude that all of these conserved patterns between IIRs indicate a shared function of these sequence structures related to STRs.
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