Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39025839›Full record

ArticleNature communications2024

Bdelloid rotifers deploy horizontally acquired biosynthetic genes against a fungal pathogen.

Reuben W Nowell, Fernando Rodriguez, Bette J Hecox-Lea, David B Mark Welch, Irina R Arkhipova, Timothy G Barraclough, Christopher G Wilson

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Nature communications, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
7citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

7 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. A horizontally transferred bacterial gene aids the freezing tolerance of Antarctic bdelloid rotifers.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  6. Animal-Encoded Nonribosomal Pathway to Bursatellin Analogs.Journal of the American Chemical Society · 2025
    Article
  7. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Reuben W NowellDepartment of Biology, University of Oxford, 11a Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3SZ, UK.ORCID 0000-0001-7546-6495
Fernando RodriguezJosephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-4044-8734
Bette J Hecox-LeaJosephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-6216-1040
David B Mark WelchJosephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0001-9774-4580
Irina R ArkhipovaJosephine Bay Paul Center for Comparative Molecular Biology and Evolution, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, USA.ORCID 0000-0002-4805-1339
Timothy G BarracloughDepartment of Biology, University of Oxford, 11a Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3SZ, UK.
Christopher G WilsonDepartment of Biology, University of Oxford, 11a Mansfield Road, Oxford, OX1 3SZ, UK. chris.wilson@biology.ox.ac.uk.ORCID 0000-0001-7649-5255

Funding

Horizontal gene transfer as the source of evolutionary innovation in eukaryotesR01GM111917 · NIGMS · MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY · PI ARKHIPOVA, IRINA · 2014 to 2025
$4.2M
Novel Antioxidant Defenses and Redox Maintenance Systems in Bdelloid RotifersR21AG046899 · NIA · MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY · PI MARK WELCH, DAVID B · 2014 to 2015
$434k
European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) LTF-733-2010NIA NIH HHS R21 AG046899NIGMS NIH HHS R01 GM111917RCUK | Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) NE/J01933X/1RCUK | Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) NE/M01651X/1RCUK | Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) NE/S010866/1U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01GM111917U.S. Department of Health & Human Services | National Institutes of Health (NIH) R21AG046899
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Coevolutionary antagonism generates relentless selection that can favour genetic exchange, including transfer of antibiotic synthesis and resistance genes among bacteria, and sexual recombination of disease resistance alleles in eukaryotes. We report an unusual link between biological conflict and DNA transfer in bdelloid rotifers, microscopic animals whose genomes show elevated levels of horizontal gene transfer from non-metazoan taxa. When rotifers were challenged with a fungal pathogen, horizontally acquired genes were over twice as likely to be upregulated as other genes - a stronger enrichment than observed for abiotic stressors. Among hundreds of upregulated genes, the most markedly overrepresented were clusters resembling bacterial polyketide and nonribosomal peptide synthetases that produce antibiotics. Upregulation of these clusters in a pathogen-resistant rotifer species was nearly ten times stronger than in a susceptible species. By acquiring, domesticating, and expressing non-metazoan biosynthetic pathways, bdelloids may have evolved to resist natural enemies using antimicrobial mechanisms absent from other animals.

Indexed as

Gene Transfer, HorizontalRotiferaAnimalsBiosynthetic PathwaysMultigene FamilyPeptide SynthasesPhylogenyPolyketidesnon-ribosomal peptide synthasePeptide SynthasesPolyketides

Identifiers

PMID39025839
PMCPMC11258130

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Registered trials

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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.