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Massive invasion of organellar DNA drives nuclear genome evolution in Toxoplasma.

ABSTRACT: Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic protist pathogen that infects up to 1/3 of the human population. This apicomplexan parasite contains three genome sequences: nuclear (63 Mb); plastid organellar, ptDNA (35 kb); and mitochondrial organellar, mtDNA (5.9 kb of non-repetitive sequence). We find that the nuclear genome contains a significant amount of NUMTs (nuclear DNA of mitochondrial origin) and NUPTs (nuclear DNA of plastid origin) that are continuously acquired and represent a significant source of intraspecific genetic variation. NUOT (nuclear DNA of organellar origin) accretion has generated 1.6% of the extant T. gondii ME49 nuclear genome; the highest fraction ever reported in any organism. NUOTs are primarily found in organisms that retain the non-homologous end-joining repair pathway. Significant movement of organellar DNA was experimentally captured via amplicon sequencing of a CRISPR-induced double-strand break in non-homologous end-joining repair competent, but not ku80 mutant, Toxoplasma parasites. Comparisons with Neospora caninum, a species that diverged from Toxoplasma ~28 MY ago, revealed that the movement and fixation of 5 NUMTs predates the split of the two genera. This unexpected level of NUMT conservation suggests evolutionary constraint for cellular function. Most NUMT insertions reside within (60%) or nearby genes (23% within 1.5 kb) and reporter assays indicate that some NUMTs have the ability to function as cis-regulatory elements modulating gene expression. Together these findings portray a role for organellar sequence insertion in dynamically shaping the genomic architecture and likely contributing to adaptation and phenotypic changes in this important human pathogen.

SUBMITTER: Namasivayam S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10245829 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Massive invasion of organellar DNA drives nuclear genome evolution in <i>Toxoplasma</i>.

Namasivayam Sivaranjani S Sun Cheng C Bah Assiatu B AB Oberstaller Jenna J Pierre-Louis Edwin E Etheridge Ronald Drew RD Feschotte Cedric C Pritham Ellen J EJ Kissinger Jessica C JC

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 20230525

<i>Toxoplasma gondii</i> is a zoonotic protist pathogen that infects up to 1/3 of the human population. This apicomplexan parasite contains three genome sequences: nuclear (63 Mb); plastid organellar, ptDNA (35 kb); and mitochondrial organellar, mtDNA (5.9 kb of non-repetitive sequence). We find that the nuclear genome contains a significant amount of NUMTs (nuclear DNA of mitochondrial origin) and NUPTs (nuclear DNA of plastid origin) that are continuously acquired and represent a significant s ...[more]

PMID: 37293002

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Project description:BackgroundIllegal logging is a global crisis with significant environmental, economic, and social consequences. Efforts to combat it call for forensic methods to determine species identity, provenance, and individual identification of wood specimens throughout the forest products supply chain. DNA-based methodologies are the only tools with the potential to answer all three questions and the only ones that can be calibrated "non-destructively" by using leaves or other plant tissue and take advantage of publicly available DNA sequence databases. Despite the potential that DNA-based methods represent for wood forensics, low DNA yield from wood remains a limiting factor because, when compared to other plant tissues, wood has few living DNA-containing cells at functional maturity, it often has PCR-inhibiting extractives, and industrial processing of wood degrades DNA. To overcome these limitations, we developed a technique-organellar microcapture-to mechanically isolate intact nuclei and plastids from wood for subsequent DNA extraction, amplification, and sequencing.ResultsHere we demonstrate organellar microcapture wherein we remove individual nuclei from parenchyma cells in wood (fresh and aged) and leaves of Carya ovata and Tilia americana, amyloplasts from Carya wood, and chloroplasts from kale (Brassica sp.) leaf midribs. ITS (773 bp), ITS1 (350 bp), ITS2 (450 bp), and rbcL (620 bp) were amplified via polymerase chain reaction, sequenced, and heuristic searches against the NCBI database were used to confirm that recovered DNA corresponded to each taxon.ConclusionOrganellar microcapture, while too labor-intensive for routine extraction of many specimens, successfully recovered intact nuclei from wood samples collected more than sixty-five years ago, plastids from fresh sapwood and leaves, and presents great potential for DNA extraction from recalcitrant plant samples such as tissues rich in secondary metabolites, old specimens (archaeological, herbarium, and xylarium specimens), or trace evidence previously considered too small for analysis.

Dataset Information

Massive invasion of organellar DNA drives nuclear genome evolution in Toxoplasma.

Publications

Massive invasion of organellar DNA drives nuclear genome evolution in <i>Toxoplasma</i>.

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