Background: Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) events have rarely been reported in gymnosperms. Gnetum is a gymnosperm genus comprising 25‒35 species sympatric with angiosperms in West African, South American, and Southeast Asian rainforests. Only a single acquisition of an angiosperm mitochondrial intron has been documented to date in Asian Gnetum mitogenomes. We wanted to develop a more comprehensive understanding of frequency and fragment length distribution of such events as well as their evolutionary history in this genus.
Results: We sequenced and assembled mitogenomes from five Asian Gnetum species. These genomes vary remarkably in size and foreign DNA content. We identified 15 mitochondrion-derived and five plastid-derived (MTPT) foreign genes. Our phylogenetic analyses strongly indicate that these foreign genes were transferred from diverse eudicots-mostly from the Rubiaceae genus Coptosapelta and ten genera of Malpighiales. This indicates that Asian Gnetum has experienced multiple independent HGT events. Patterns of sequence evolution strongly suggest DNA-mediated transfer between mitochondria as the primary mechanism giving rise to these HGT events. Most Asian Gnetum species are lianas and often entwined with sympatric angiosperms. We therefore propose that close apposition of Gnetum and angiosperm stems presents opportunities for interspecific cell-to-cell contact through friction and wounding, leading to HGT.
Conclusions: Our study reveals that multiple HGT events have resulted in massive amounts of angiosperm mitochondrial DNA integrated into Asian Gnetum mitogenomes. Gnetum and its neighboring angiosperms are often entwined with each other, possibly accounting for frequent HGT between these two phylogenetically remote lineages.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11197197 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12915-024-01924-y | DOI Listing |
BMC Biol
June 2024
Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan.
Ecology
December 2021
State Key Laboratory of Hybrid Rice, Department of Ecology, College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China.
Front Plant Sci
February 2019
State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding, Key Laboratory of Tree Breeding and Cultivation of State Forestry Administration, Research Institute of Forestry, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing, China.
is a genus in the Gnetales that has a unique but ambiguous placement within seed plant phylogeny. Previous studies have shown that has lower values of photosynthetic characters than those of other seed plants, but few species have been studied, and those that have been studied are restricted to narrow taxonomic and geographic ranges. In addition, the mechanism underlying the lower values of photosynthetic characters in remains poorly understood.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Ethnopharmacol
January 2017
State Key Laboratory for Bioactive Substances and Functions of Natural Medicines, Beijing, PR China; Beijing Key Laboratory of New Drug Mechanisms and Pharmacological Evaluation Study, Beijing, PR China; Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, PR China. Electronic address:
Ethnopharmacological Relevance: Aconitum has been used as local and traditional medicines in many asian regions for the treatment of various diseases such as collapse, syncope, painful joints, oedema, bronchial asthma et al. Higenamine, a plant-based alkaloid, was initially isolated from Aconitum and identified as the active cardiotonic component of Aconitum. It has been tested as a candidate of pharmacologic stress agent in the detection of coronary artery diseases (CADs) and now researchers have just accomplished the phase III clinical studies successfully in China.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMitochondrial DNA A DNA Mapp Seq Anal
May 2017
b Bergius Foundation, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Department of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences , Stockholm University, Stockholm , Sweden.
This study presents the chloroplast genome of Ephedra foeminea, an entomophilous gymnosperm, sister to the remaining (wind-pollinated) species of Ephedra (Ephedraceae, Gnetales). Based on the reference-guided assembly, the length of the chloroplast genome was estimated to be 109 584 bp, comprising a large single copy region of 60 027 bp, a small single copy 8079 bp, and inverted repeat regions of 20 739 bp. In total, 118 genes were detected, including 73 protein-coding genes, eight ribosomal RNA genes, and 37 transfer RNA genes.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!