Evidence for suppression of immunity as a driver for genomic introgressions and host range expansion in races of Albugo candida, a generalist parasite

McMullan, Mark, Gardiner, Anastasia, Bailey, Kate, Kemen, Eric, Ward, Ben J., Cevik, Volkan, Robert-Seilaniantz, Alexandre, Schultz-Larsen, Torsten, Balmuth, Alexi, Holub, Eric, Van Oosterhout, Cock ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5653-738X and Jones, Jonathan D.G. (2015) Evidence for suppression of immunity as a driver for genomic introgressions and host range expansion in races of Albugo candida, a generalist parasite. eLife, 4. ISSN 2050-084X

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Abstract

How generalist parasites with wide host ranges can evolve is a central question in parasite evolution. Albugo candida is an obligate biotrophic parasite that consists of many physiological races that each specialize on distinct Brassicaceae host species. By analyzing genome sequence assemblies of five isolates, we show they represent three races that are genetically diverged by ∼1%. Despite this divergence, their genomes are mosaic-like, with ∼25% being introgressed from other races. Sequential infection experiments show that infection by adapted races enables subsequent infection of hosts by normally non-infecting races. This facilitates introgression and the exchange of effector repertoires, and may enable the evolution of novel races that can undergo clonal population expansion on new hosts. We discuss recent studies on hybridization in other eukaryotes such as yeast, Heliconius butterflies, Darwin’s finches, sunflowers and cichlid fishes, and the implications of introgression for pathogen evolution in an agro-ecological environment.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: Copyright McMullan et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
Uncontrolled Keywords: evolutionary genetics,parasites,albugo candida,hybridisation,introgression,mosaic genome
Faculty \ School: Faculty of Science > The Sainsbury Laboratory
Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences
Faculty of Science > School of Biological Sciences
UEA Research Groups: Faculty of Science > Research Centres > Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Conservation
Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Plant Sciences
Depositing User: Pure Connector
Date Deposited: 07 Aug 2015 15:24
Last Modified: 21 Oct 2022 01:08
URI: https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/54051
DOI: 10.7554/eLife.04550

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