Transposable element-rich regions in genomes of Neocosmospora clinical isolates

Transposable elements (TEs) are repetitive DNA elements that can integrate into new genomic locations, contributing to the genome plasticity of fungi. Tes are classified into retrotransposons and DNA transposons based on their transposition intermediate. In some fungal pathogens, regions with a high...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autor: Lizcano Salas, Andrés Felipe
Formato: tesis de maestría
Estado:Versión aceptada para publicación
Fecha de publicación:2023
País:Colombia
Recursos:Universidad de los Andes
Repositorio:Séneca: repositorio Uniandes
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:repositorio.uniandes.edu.co:1992/73285
Acesso em linha:https://hdl.handle.net/1992/73285
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palavra-chave:Genome organization
Compartmentalization
Virulence
Genome adaptability
Microbiología
Descrição
Resumo:Transposable elements (TEs) are repetitive DNA elements that can integrate into new genomic locations, contributing to the genome plasticity of fungi. Tes are classified into retrotransposons and DNA transposons based on their transposition intermediate. In some fungal pathogens, regions with a high proportion of TEs are associated with putative virulence factors. Neocosmospora is a trans-kingdom pathogen that can infect plants, animals, and humans. To our knowledge, no previous study has analyzed the genomes of Neocosmospora clinical isolates. For that reason, this project aimed to characterize transposable elements in the genomes of Neocosmospora spp. clinical isolates and compare them with non-clinical isolates. To achieve this goal, we sequenced and assembled genomes of Neocosmospora clinical isolates and used contiguous assemblies of other isolates available in GenBank. We identified and classified TEs on these genomes, and identified and characterized the genes associated with TE-rich regions. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study that has sequenced and analyzed the genome assemblies of clinical isolates of Neocosmospora and provided the first genome assemblies of N. petroliphila and N. lichenicola. We found that there is a high variance in TEs content both within and between species. Also, TE-rich regions are associated with putative genes related to biosynthesis gene clusters (BGCs), azole resistance, and the acquisition of nitrogen, iron, zinc, and copper. Based on our results, we hypothesized that 1) compartmentalization of Neocosmospora core chromosomes based on changes in TEs distribution could be more relevant than LS-chromosomes in lifestyle adaptation; and 2) TE de-repression in Neocosmospora could be mediated by nutrient starvation.