Discovery of a New Starship Transposon Driving the Horizontal Transfer of the ToxA Virulence Gene in Alternaria ventricosa.

ABSTRACT: The virulence gene ToxA has been proposed to be horizontally transferred between three fungal wheat pathogens (Parastagonospora nodorum, Pyrenophora tritici-repentis, and Bipolaris sorokiniana) as part of a conserved ~14 kb ToxhAT transposon. Here, our analysis of 2137 fungal species-representative assemblies revealed that the ToxA gene is an isolate of Alternaria ventricosa and shows a remarkable 99.5% similarity to those found in B. sorokiniana and P. tritici-repentis. Analysis of the regions flanking ToxA within A. ventricosa revealed that it was embedded within a 14 kb genomic element nearly identical to the corresponding ToxhAT regions in B. sorokiniana, P. nodorum, and P. tritici-repe

SUBMITTER: Liu F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11857905 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature