Codon optimization underpins generalist parasitism in fungi

The range of hosts that parasites can infect is a key determinant of the emergence and spread of disease. Yet, the impact of host range variation on the evolution of parasite genomes remains unknown. Here, we show that codon optimization underlies genome adaptation in broad host range parasites. We...

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Main Authors: Badet, T., Peyraud, R., Mbengue, M., Navaud, O., Derbyshire, Mark, Oliver, Richard, Barbacci, A., Raffaele, S.
Format: Journal Article
Published: 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/50320
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author Badet, T.
Peyraud, R.
Mbengue, M.
Navaud, O.
Derbyshire, Mark
Oliver, Richard
Barbacci, A.
Raffaele, S.
author_facet Badet, T.
Peyraud, R.
Mbengue, M.
Navaud, O.
Derbyshire, Mark
Oliver, Richard
Barbacci, A.
Raffaele, S.
author_sort Badet, T.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The range of hosts that parasites can infect is a key determinant of the emergence and spread of disease. Yet, the impact of host range variation on the evolution of parasite genomes remains unknown. Here, we show that codon optimization underlies genome adaptation in broad host range parasites. We found that the longer proteins encoded by broad host range fungi likely increase natural selection on codon optimization in these species. Accordingly, codon optimization correlates with host range across the fungal kingdom. At the species level, biased patterns of synonymous substitutions underpin increased codon optimization in a generalist but not a specialist fungal pathogen. Virulence genes were consistently enriched in highly codon-optimized genes of generalist but not specialist species. We conclude that codon optimization is related to the capacity of parasites to colonize multiple hosts. Our results link genome evolution and translational regulation to the long-term persistence of generalist parasitism.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-503202017-09-13T15:42:02Z Codon optimization underpins generalist parasitism in fungi Badet, T. Peyraud, R. Mbengue, M. Navaud, O. Derbyshire, Mark Oliver, Richard Barbacci, A. Raffaele, S. The range of hosts that parasites can infect is a key determinant of the emergence and spread of disease. Yet, the impact of host range variation on the evolution of parasite genomes remains unknown. Here, we show that codon optimization underlies genome adaptation in broad host range parasites. We found that the longer proteins encoded by broad host range fungi likely increase natural selection on codon optimization in these species. Accordingly, codon optimization correlates with host range across the fungal kingdom. At the species level, biased patterns of synonymous substitutions underpin increased codon optimization in a generalist but not a specialist fungal pathogen. Virulence genes were consistently enriched in highly codon-optimized genes of generalist but not specialist species. We conclude that codon optimization is related to the capacity of parasites to colonize multiple hosts. Our results link genome evolution and translational regulation to the long-term persistence of generalist parasitism. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/50320 10.7554/eLife.22472 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ fulltext
spellingShingle Badet, T.
Peyraud, R.
Mbengue, M.
Navaud, O.
Derbyshire, Mark
Oliver, Richard
Barbacci, A.
Raffaele, S.
Codon optimization underpins generalist parasitism in fungi
title Codon optimization underpins generalist parasitism in fungi
title_full Codon optimization underpins generalist parasitism in fungi
title_fullStr Codon optimization underpins generalist parasitism in fungi
title_full_unstemmed Codon optimization underpins generalist parasitism in fungi
title_short Codon optimization underpins generalist parasitism in fungi
title_sort codon optimization underpins generalist parasitism in fungi
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/50320