Acquired stress resilience through bacteria-to-nematode horizontal gene transfer.

ABSTRACT: Natural selection drives acquisition of organismal resilience traits to protect against adverse environments. Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is an important evolutionary mechanism for the acquisition of novel traits, including metazoan acquisition of functions in immunity, metabolism, and reproduction via interdomain HGT (iHGT) from bacteria. We report that the nematode gene rml-3, which was acquired by iHGT from bacteria, enables exoskeleton resilience and protection against environmental toxins in C. elegans. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that diverse nematode RML-3 proteins form a single monophyletic clade most highly similar to bacterial enzymes that biosynthesize L-rhamnose to build cell wall polysaccharides. C. elegans rml-3 is regulated in developing seam cells

SUBMITTER: Pandey T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10473587 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature