Parasites, including pathogens, can adapt to better exploit their hosts on many scales, ranging from within an infection of a single individual to series of infections spanning multiple host species. However, little is known about how the genomes of parasites in natural communities evolve when they face diverse hosts. We investigated how Bartonella bacteria that circulate in rodent communities in the dunes of the Negev Desert in Israel adapt to different species of rodent hosts. We propagated 15 Bartonella populations through infections of either a single host species (Gerbillus andersoni or Gerbillus pyramidum) or alternating between the two. After 20 rodent passages, strains with de novo mutations replaced the ancestor in most populations. Mutations in two mononucleotide simple sequence repeats (SSRs) that caused frameshifts in the same adhesin gene dominated the evolutionary dynamics. They appeared exclusively in populations that encountered G. andersoni and altered the dynamics of infections of this host. Similar SSRs in other genes are conserved and exhibit ON/OFF variation in Bartonella isolates from the Negev Desert dunes. Our results suggest that SSR-based contingency loci could be important not only for rapidly and reversibly generating antigenic variation to escape immune responses but that they may also mediate the evolution of host specificity.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
---|---|
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11466379 | PMC |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.ppat.1012591 | DOI Listing |
PLoS Pathog
September 2024
Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Swiss Institute for Dryland Environmental and Energy Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Midreshet Ben-Gurion, Israel.
mBio
October 2024
State Key Laboratory of Ecological Pest Control for Fujian and Taiwan Crops, College of Plant Protection, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China.
Isw2 proteins, ubiquitous across eukaryotes, exhibit a propensity for DNA binding and exert dynamic influences on local chromosome condensation in an ATP-dependent fashion, thereby modulating the accessibility of neighboring genes to transcriptional machinery. Here, we report the deletion of a putative MoISW2 gene, yielding substantial ramifications on plant pathogenicity. Subsequent gene complementation and chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing (ChIP-seq) analyses were conducted to delineate binding sites.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTheor Appl Genet
August 2024
Hebei Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Breeding, National Soybean Improvement Center Shijiazhuang Sub-Center, Huang-Huai-Hai Key Laboratory of Biology and Genetic Improvement of Soybean, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Institute of Cereal and Oil Crops, Hebei Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China.
PLoS Genet
June 2024
Rachel & Menachem Mendelovitch Evolutionary Processes of Mutation & Natural Selection Research Laboratory, Department of Genetics and Developmental Biology, the Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel.
Like many other non-sporulating bacterial species, Escherichia coli is able to survive prolonged periods of resource exhaustion, by entering a state of growth called long-term stationary phase (LTSP). In July 2015, we initiated a set of evolutionary experiments aimed at characterizing the dynamics of E. coli adaptation under LTSP.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPLoS One
May 2024
School of Economics and Management, Huaibei Normal University, Huaibei, China.
The Yangtze River Economic Belt serves as a paradigm of ecological integration and high-quality development within China. Under the constraints of the "Dual Carbon" goal, how does the integrative policy of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, aimed at reinforcing inter-regional industrial cooperation, impact carbon emissions across various provinces within the region? Leveraging panel data from 30 Chinese provinces spanning 2009-2019 and treating the 2016 promulgation of the "Yangtze River Economic Belt Development Planning Outline" as a quasi-natural experiment, this study employs a Difference-in-Differences (DID) model for discerning the effects of regional integration policies on carbon emissions, intensity, and efficiency in the 11 provinces of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. The research further delves into the underlying mechanisms through which policy interventions modulate provincial carbon emissions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEnter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!