Adaptation During the Shift from Entomopathogen to Endosymbiont Is Accompanied by Gene Loss and Intensified Selection.

ABSTRACT: Fungi have been found to be associated with many insect species, with some species transitioning to reside within insects as symbionts. However, the evolutionary pressures and genomic consequences associated with this transition are not well understood. Pathogenic fungi of the genus Ophiocordyceps have undergone multiple, independent transitions from pathogen to endosymbiont lifestyles, where they reside within the fatty tissues of infected soft-scale insects transgenerationally without killing their hosts. To gain an understanding of the genomic adaptations underlying this life history shift, long-read sequencing was utilized to assemble the genomes of both the soft-scale insect Parthenolecanium corni and its Ophiocordyceps endosymbiont from a single insect. Assembly and metagenomic-based

SUBMITTER: Ward CM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11632363 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature