Muller's Ratchet and Ribosome Degeneration in the Obligate Intracellular Parasites Microsporidia.

ABSTRACT: Microsporidia are fungi-like parasites that have the smallest known eukaryotic genome, and for that reason they are used as a model to study the phenomenon of genome decay in parasitic forms of life. Similar to other intracellular parasites that reproduce asexually in an environment with alleviated natural selection, Microsporidia experience continuous genome decay that is driven by Muller's ratchet-an evolutionary process of irreversible accumulation of deleterious mutations that lead to gene loss and the miniaturization of cellular components. Particularly, Microsporidia have remarkably small ribosomes in which the rRNA is reduced to the minimal enzymatic core. In this study, we analyzed microsporidian ribosomes to study an apparent impact of Muller's ratchet on stru

SUBMITTER: Melnikov SV 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6321566 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature