ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2016
Horizontally acquired genes in early-diverging pathogenic fungi enable the use of host nucleosides and nucleotides.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 42 papers.
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Who cites it
42 citing papers in PubMed, 85 citations in OpenAlex.
- Microsporidia: evolution, infection mechanisms and host impact.Nature reviews. Microbiology · 2026Review
- Horizontal gene transfer is widespread in diverse eukaryotes.BMC genomics · 2026Article
- Regions of low gene expression promote maintenance and adaptation of horizontally acquired genes in yeasts.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Genome and Single-Cell Transcriptome Reveal the Evolution of Holoparasitic Plants: A Case Study of Cistanche deserticola.Plant biotechnology journal · 2026Article
- Bioinformatics analysis of the Microsporidia sp. MB genome: a malaria transmission-blocking symbiont of the Anopheles arabiensis mosquito.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- The interkingdom horizontal gene transfer in 44 early diverging fungi boosted their metabolic, adaptive, and immune capabilities.Evolution letters · 2024Article
- Genomic insights into the evolution and adaptation of secondary metabolite gene clusters in fungicolous species Cladobotryum mycophilum ATHUM6906.G3 (Bethesda, Md.) · 2024Article
- What we know so far and what we can expect next: A molecular investigation of plant parasitism.Genetics and molecular biology · 2024Article
- Molecular and cellular characterization of four putative nucleotide transporters from the shrimp microsporidian Enterocytozoon hepatopenaei (EHP).Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Horizontally Transferred DNA in the Genome of the Fungus Pyricularia oryzae is Associated With Repressive Histone Modifications.Molecular biology and evolution · 2023Article
- Vertical and horizontal gene transfer shaped plant colonization and biomass degradation in the fungal genus Armillaria.Nature microbiology · 2023Article
- HGTphyloDetect: facilitating the identification and phylogenetic analysis of horizontal gene transfer.Briefings in bioinformatics · 2023Article
- Genome-Wide Characterization and Comparative Genomic Analysis of the Serpin Gene Family in MicrosporidianInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2022Article
- Heterologous Expressed NbSWP12 from MicrosporidiaJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- The Evolution of the Satratoxin and Atranone Gene Clusters ofJournal of fungi (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Current Therapy and Therapeutic Targets for Microsporidiosis.Frontiers in microbiology · 2022Review
- Comparative Genomics of Microsporidia.Experientia supplementum (2012) · 2022Article
- Article
- Repeated horizontal gene transfer of GALactose metabolism genes violates Dollo's law of irreversible loss.Genetics · 2021Article
- Two novel venom proteins underlie divergent parasitic strategies between a generalist and a specialist parasite.Nature communications · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) among bacteria, archaea, and viruses is widespread, but the extent of transfers from these lineages into eukaryotic organisms is contentious. Here we systematically identify hundreds of genes that were likely acquired horizontally from a variety of sources by the early-diverging fungal phyla Microsporidia and Cryptomycota. Interestingly, the Microsporidia have acquired via HGT several genes involved in nucleic acid synthesis and salvage, such as those encoding thymidine kinase (TK), cytidylate kinase, and purine nucleotide phosphorylase. We show that these HGT-derived nucleic acid synthesis genes tend to function at the interface between the metabolic networks of the host and pathogen. Thus, these genes likely play vital roles in diversifying the useable nucleic acid components available to the intracellular parasite, often through the direct capture of resources from the host. Using an in vivo viability assay, we also demonstrate that one of these genes, TK, encodes an enzyme that is capable of activating known prodrugs to their active form, which suggests a possible treatment route for microsporidiosis. We further argue that interfacial genes with well-understood activities, especially those horizontally transferred from bacteria or viruses, could provide medical treatments for microsporidian infections.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.