Huessy Benjamin, Bumann Dirk, Ebert Dieter
Department of Environmental Sciences, Zoology, University of Basel, Basel 4051, Switzerland.
University of Basel, Basel 4056, Switzerland.
R Soc Open Sci. 2024 Apr 3;11(4):231441. doi: 10.1098/rsos.231441. eCollection 2024 Apr.
For a profound understanding of antagonistic coevolution, it is necessary to identify the coevolving genes. The bacterium and its host, the microcrustacean , are a well-characterized paradigm for co-evolution, but the underlying genes remain largely unknown. A genome-wide association study suggested a collagen-like protein 7 (Pcl7) as a candidate mediating parasite attachment and driving its coevolution with the host. Since cannot currently be genetically manipulated, we used to express a fusion protein of a Pcl7 carboxy-terminus from and the amino-terminal domain of a collagen-like protein (CLP). Mutant (Pcl7-) spores but not wild-type (WT-) spores attached to the same site of susceptible hosts as . Furthermore, Pcl7- spores attached readily to susceptible host genotypes, but only slightly to resistant host genotypes. These findings indicated that the fusion protein was properly expressed and folded and demonstrated that indeed the C-terminus of Pcl7 mediates attachment in a host genotype-specific manner. These results provide strong evidence for the involvement of a CLP in the coevolution of and and open new avenues for genetic epidemiological studies of host-parasite interactions.
为了深入理解对抗性协同进化，有必要识别共同进化的基因。细菌及其宿主微型甲壳动物是协同进化的一个特征明确的范例，但潜在的基因在很大程度上仍不为人知。一项全基因组关联研究表明，一种类胶原蛋白7（Pcl7）是介导寄生虫附着并推动其与宿主协同进化的候选基因。由于目前无法对[具体细菌名称]进行基因操作，我们利用[具体替代方法]来表达来自[具体细菌名称]的Pcl7羧基末端与一种[具体微型甲壳动物名称]类胶原蛋白（CLP）氨基末端结构域的融合蛋白。突变型[具体细菌名称]（Pcl7-）孢子而非野生型[具体细菌名称]（WT-）孢子与[具体细菌名称]一样附着在易感宿主的同一部位。此外，Pcl7-孢子很容易附着在易感宿主基因型上，但仅轻微附着在抗性宿主基因型上。这些发现表明融合蛋白得到了正确表达和折叠，并证明Pcl7的C末端确实以宿主基因型特异性方式介导附着。这些结果为CLP参与[具体细菌名称]和[具体微型甲壳动物名称]的协同进化提供了有力证据，并为宿主-寄生虫相互作用的遗传流行病学研究开辟了新途径。
