4.5 Article

Metagenomics Shines Light on the Evolution of Sunscreen Pigment Metabolism in the Teloschistales (Lichen-Forming Ascomycota)

期刊

GENOME BIOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
卷 15, 期 2, 页码 -

出版社

OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evad002

关键词

anthraquinone; lichenized fungi; Lecanoromycetes; ABC-transporter; biosynthetic gene cluster; fungal evolution

向作者/读者索取更多资源

Fungi produce a large number of secondary metabolites that affect their interactions with other organisms and the environment. Understanding the genes involved in metabolite synthesis is important for studying fungal evolution and adaptation. By using metagenomic sequencing, researchers identified unique transporter genes in a diverse order of lichens that may explain the abundance and ubiquity of UV-protectant secondary metabolites in these lichens. The results highlight the significance of metagenomics in studying the secondary metabolism of non-model fungi like lichens.
Fungi produce a vast number of secondary metabolites that shape their interactions with other organisms and the environment. Characterizing the genes underpinning metabolite synthesis is therefore key to understanding fungal evolution and adaptation. Lichenized fungi represent almost one-third of Ascomycota diversity and boast impressive secondary metabolites repertoires. However, most lichen biosynthetic genes have not been linked to their metabolite products. Here we used metagenomic sequencing to survey gene families associated with production of anthraquinones, UV-protectant secondary metabolites present in various fungi, but especially abundant in a diverse order of lichens, the Teloschistales (class Lecanoromycetes, phylum Ascomycota). We successfully assembled 24 new, high-quality lichenized-fungal genomes de novo and combined them with publicly available Lecanoromycetes genomes from taxa with diverse secondary chemistry to produce a whole-genome tree. Secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) analysis showed that whilst lichen BGCs are numerous and highly dissimilar, core enzyme genes are generally conserved across taxa. This suggests metabolite diversification occurs via re-shuffling existing enzyme genes with novel accessory genes rather than BGC gains/losses or de novo gene evolution. We identified putative anthraquinone BGCs in our lichen dataset that appear homologous to anthraquinone clusters from non-lichenized fungi, suggesting these genes were present in the common ancestor of the subphylum Pezizomycotina. Finally, we identified unique transporter genes in Teloschistales anthraquinone BGCs that may explain why these metabolites are so abundant and ubiquitous in these lichens. Our results support the importance of metagenomics for understanding the secondary metabolism of non-model fungi such as lichens.

作者

我是这篇论文的作者
点击您的名字以认领此论文并将其添加到您的个人资料中。

评论

主要评分

4.5
评分不足

次要评分

新颖性
-
重要性
-
科学严谨性
-
评价这篇论文

推荐

暂无数据
暂无数据