Abstract Detail

Secondary Metabolites

Wisecaver, Jennifer [1], Slot, Jason [2], Rokas, Antonis [1].

The evolution of fungal metabolic pathways.

Fungal species contain a remarkable range of metabolic pathways, sometimes in the form of gene clusters, which enable them to digest almost any natural organic matter and synthesize a wide variety of potent small molecules. Although metabolism is fundamental to the fungal lifestyle, we still know relatively little about how major sources of gene innovation, such as gene duplication (GD) and horizontal gene transfer (HGT), have interacted with the unique genomic arrangement of fungal metabolic pathways to give rise to this amazing metabolic versatility. We examined the synteny and evolutionary history of 247,202 fungal genes encoding enzymes that catalyze 875 distinct metabolic reactions from 12 metabolic categories in 208 genomes spanning the diversity of the fungal kingdom. We found that clustered genes varied greatly with respect to metabolic category and lineage; for example, genes involved in nucleotide metabolism were most often clustered in the Saccharomycotina yeasts, whereas gene clustering in the Pezizomycotina was more common in ecologically specialized categories such as secondary metabolism. Interestingly, GD and HGT were differentially distributed across fungal lineages; for example, GD was most frequently observed in the Agaricomycotina where it did not differentially impact clustered and non-clustered genes, whereas HGT was most often observed in the Pezizomycotina, especially among clustered genes. These results not only evaluate the impact of GD and HGT across the diversity of fungal metabolism but also quantify for the first time the degree to which participation in the same pathway sculpts the structure of synteny in fungal genomes.

1 - Vanderbilt university, Biological Sciences, Nashville, TN, 37235, USA
2 - Ohio State University, Plant Pathology, Columbus, OH, 43210, USA

Keywords:
Gene duplication
Horizontal gene transfer
phylogenomics
Gene clustering.

Presentation Type: Symposium or Colloquium Presentation
Session: SY3
Location: Room 104 AB/Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center
Date: Monday, June 9th, 2014
Time: 5:30 PM
Number: SY3006
Abstract ID:128
Candidate for Awards:None