Hybridization and polyploidy enable genomic plasticity without sex in the most devastating plant-parasitic nematodes.

ABSTRACT: Root-knot nematodes (genus Meloidogyne) exhibit a diversity of reproductive modes ranging from obligatory sexual to fully asexual reproduction. Intriguingly, the most widespread and devastating species to global agriculture are those that reproduce asexually, without meiosis. To disentangle this surprising parasitic success despite the absence of sex and genetic exchanges, we have sequenced and assembled the genomes of three obligatory ameiotic and asexual Meloidogyne. We have compared them to those of relatives able to perform meiosis and sexual reproduction. We show that the genomes of ameiotic asexual Meloidogyne are large, polyploid and made of duplicated regions with a high within-species average nucleotide divergence of ~8%. Phylogenomic analysis of the genes present in these duplica

SUBMITTER: Blanc-Mathieu R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5465968 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature