Diversification of Fungal Chitinases and Their Functional Differentiation in Histoplasma capsulatum.

ABSTRACT: Chitinases enzymatically hydrolyze chitin, a highly abundant and utilized polymer of N-acetyl-glucosamine. Fungi are a rich source of chitinases; however, the phylogenetic and functional diversity of fungal chitinases are not well understood. We surveyed fungal chitinases from 373 publicly available genomes, characterized domain architecture, and conducted phylogenetic analyses of the glycoside hydrolase (GH18) domain. This large-scale analysis does not support the previous division of fungal chitinases into three major clades (A, B, C) as chitinases previously assigned to the "C" clade are not resolved as distinct from the "A" clade. Fungal chitinase diversity was partly shaped by horizontal gene transfer, and at least one clade of bacterial origin occurs among chitinases previously assig

SUBMITTER: Goughenour KD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8042737 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature