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Bracoviruses contain a large multigene family coding for protein tyrosine phosphatases.

ABSTRACT: The relationship between parasitic wasps and bracoviruses constitutes one of the few known mutualisms between viruses and eukaryotes. The virions produced in the wasp ovaries are injected into host lepidopteran larvae, where virus genes are expressed, allowing successful development of the parasite by inducing host immune suppression and developmental arrest. Bracovirus-bearing wasps have a common phylogenetic origin, and contemporary bracoviruses are hypothesized to have been inherited by chromosomal transmission from a virus that originally integrated into the genome of the common ancestor wasp living 73.7 +/- 10 million years ago. However, so far no conserved genes have been described among different braconid wasp subfamilies. Here we show that a gene family is present in bracoviruses of different braconid wasp subfamilies (Cotesia congregata, Microgastrinae, and Toxoneuron nigriceps, Cardiochilinae) which likely corresponds to an ancient component of the bracovirus genome that might have been present in the ancestral virus. The genes encode proteins belonging to the protein tyrosine phosphatase family, known to play a key role in the control of signal transduction pathways. Bracovirus protein tyrosine phosphatase genes were shown to be expressed in different tissues of parasitized hosts, and two protein tyrosine phosphatases were produced with recombinant baculoviruses and tested for their biochemical activity. One protein tyrosine phosphatase is a functional phosphatase. These results strengthen the hypothesis that protein tyrosine phosphatases are involved in virally induced alterations of host physiology during parasitism.

SUBMITTER: Provost B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC524979 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Bracoviruses contain a large multigene family coding for protein tyrosine phosphatases.

Provost Bertille B Varricchio Paola P Arana Eloisa E Espagne Eric E Falabella Patrizia P Huguet Elisabeth E La Scaleia Raffaella R Cattolico Laurence L Poirié Marylène M Malva Carla C Olszewski Julie A JA Pennacchio Francesco F Drezen Jean-Michel JM

Journal of virology 20041201 23

The relationship between parasitic wasps and bracoviruses constitutes one of the few known mutualisms between viruses and eukaryotes. The virions produced in the wasp ovaries are injected into host lepidopteran larvae, where virus genes are expressed, allowing successful development of the parasite by inducing host immune suppression and developmental arrest. Bracovirus-bearing wasps have a common phylogenetic origin, and contemporary bracoviruses are hypothesized to have been inherited by chrom ...[more]

PMID: 15542661

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Project description:BackgroundGene duplications have been proposed to be the main mechanism involved in genome evolution and in acquisition of new functions. Polydnaviruses (PDVs), symbiotic viruses associated with parasitoid wasps, are ideal model systems to study mechanisms of gene duplications given that PDV genomes consist of virulence genes organized into multigene families. In these systems the viral genome is integrated in a wasp chromosome as a provirus and virus particles containing circular double-stranded DNA are injected into the parasitoids' hosts and are essential for parasitism success. The viral virulence factors, organized in gene families, are required collectively to induce host immune suppression and developmental arrest. The gene family which encodes protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) has undergone spectacular expansion in several PDV genomes with up to 42 genes.ResultsHere, we present strong indications that PTP gene family expansion occurred via classical mechanisms: by duplication of large segments of the chromosomally integrated form of the virus sequences (segmental duplication), by tandem duplications within this form and by dispersed duplications. We also propose a novel duplication mechanism specific to PDVs that involves viral circle reintegration into the wasp genome. The PTP copies produced were shown to undergo conservative evolution along with episodes of adaptive evolution. In particular recently produced copies have undergone positive selection in sites most likely involved in defining substrate selectivity.ConclusionThe results provide evidence about the dynamic nature of polydnavirus proviral genomes. Classical and PDV-specific duplication mechanisms have been involved in the production of new gene copies. Selection pressures associated with antagonistic interactions with parasitized hosts have shaped these genes used to manipulate lepidopteran physiology with evidence for positive selection involved in adaptation to host targets.

Dataset Information

Bracoviruses contain a large multigene family coding for protein tyrosine phosphatases.

Publications

Bracoviruses contain a large multigene family coding for protein tyrosine phosphatases.

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