New Paper on Potentially Functional Horizontal Gene Transfer from the Host

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Qianshi Lin, PostDoctoral Fellow, and Arjan Banerjee, PhD student, Stefanovic Lab, on their paper published in Genome Biology and Evolution.

Qianshi Lin, Arjan Banerjee, Saša Stefanović, Mitochondrial phylogenomics of Cuscuta (Convolvulaceae) reveals a potentially functional horizontal gene transfer from the host, Genome Biology and Evolution, 2022;, evac091, https://doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evac091

Horizontal gene transfers (the movement of genetic information between organisms) from the mitochondrial genome of host to Cuscuta (dodders), a parasitic plant had not been reported before. In our paper 'Mitochondrial phylogenomics of dodders (Convolvulaceae) reveals a potentially functional horizontal gene transfer from the host', our results show mitochondrial atp1 genes of South African subgenus Pachystigma were inferred to be transferred from Lamiales (mint order), with high support; this horizontally transferred atp1 gene has replaced the native copy and may remain functional; the incongruence between mitochondrial phylogeny of dodders and previous plastid/nuclear phylogeny may be caused by this horizontal gene transfer. We reveal the first example of organellar horizontal gene transfer from host to dodders, and indicate that horizontal gene transfers within mitochondrial genomes of dodders are likely to be rare events.