An Inversion Polymorphism Under Balancing Selection, Involving Giant Mobile Elements, in an Invasive Fungal Pathogen.

ABSTRACT: Recombination suppression can evolve in sex or mating-type chromosomes, or in autosomal supergenes, with different haplotypes being maintained by balancing selection. In the invasive chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica, a genomic region was suggested to lack recombination and to be partially physically linked to the mating-type (MAT) locus based on segregation analyses. Using hundreds of available C. parasitica genomes and generating new high-quality genome assemblies, we show that a ca. 1.2 Mb genomic region proximal to the mating-type locus lacks recombination, with the segregation of two highly differentiated haplotypes in balanced proportions in invasive populations. High-quality genome assemblies further revealed an inversion in one of the haplotypes in the invaded range.

SUBMITTER: Hartmann FE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11848846 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature