Recent transposable element bursts are associated with the proximity to genes in a fungal plant pathogen.

ABSTRACT: The activity of transposable elements (TEs) contributes significantly to pathogen genome evolution. TEs often destabilize genome integrity but may also confer adaptive variation in pathogenicity or resistance traits. De-repression of epigenetically silenced TEs often initiates bursts of transposition activity that may be counteracted by purifying selection and genome defenses. However, how these forces interact to determine the expansion routes of TEs within a pathogen species remains largely unknown. Here, we analyzed a set of 19 telomere-to-telomere genomes of the fungal wheat pathogen Zymoseptoria tritici. Phylogenetic reconstruction and ancestral state estimates of individual TE families revealed that TEs have undergone distinct activation and repression periods resulting in highly une

SUBMITTER: Oggenfuss U 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9970103 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature