Forty new genomes shed light on sexual reproduction and the origin of tetraploidy in Microsporidia.

ABSTRACT: Microsporidia are single-celled, obligately intracellular parasites with growing public health, agricultural, and economic importance. Despite this, Microsporidia remain relatively enigmatic, with many aspects of their biology and evolution unexplored. Key questions include whether Microsporidia undergo sexual reproduction, and the nature of the relationship between tetraploid and diploid lineages. While few high-quality microsporidian genomes currently exist to help answer such questions, large-scale biodiversity genomics initiatives, such as the Darwin Tree of Life project, can generate high-quality genome assemblies for microsporidian parasites when sequencing infected host species. Here, we present 40 new microsporidian genome assemblies from infected arthropod hosts that were sequence

SUBMITTER: Khalaf A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12558613 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature