Multiple recent horizontal transfers of a large genomic region in cheese making fungi
Résumé
While the extent and impact of horizontal transfers in prokaryotes are widely acknowledged,
their importance to the eukaryotic kingdom is unclear and thought by many to be anecdotal.
Here we report multiple recent transfers of a huge genomic island between Penicillium spp.
found in the food environment. Sequencing of the two leading filamentous fungi used in
cheese making, P. roqueforti and P. camemberti, and comparison with the penicillin producer
P. rubens reveals a 575 kb long genomic island in P. roqueforti—called Wallaby—present as
identical fragments at non-homologous loci in P. camemberti and P. rubens.Wallaby is detected
in Penicillium collections exclusively in strains from food environments. Wallaby encompasses
about 250 predicted genes, some of which are probably involved in competition with
microorganisms. The occurrence of multiple recent eukaryotic transfers in the food
environment provides strong evidence for the importance of this understudied and probably
underestimated phenomenon in eukaryotes.
| Origine | Publication financée par une institution |
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