{"id":69,"date":"2023-01-03T12:37:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-03T12:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/medicalmycology\/?p=69"},"modified":"2023-07-04T12:37:38","modified_gmt":"2023-07-04T12:37:38","slug":"jumping-genes-help-fungus-kill-salamanders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/medicalmycology\/2023\/01\/03\/jumping-genes-help-fungus-kill-salamanders\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Jumping genes\u2019 help fungus kill salamanders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A fungus that infects salamanders contains multiple copies of the same \u201cjumping genes\u201d,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.pnas.org\/doi\/10.1073\/pnas.2212633120\">scientists have discovered<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Jumping genes, called transposons, can \u201ccopy and paste\u201d themselves and impact the organism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most organisms have some repeated parts of their DNA, some of which are jumping genes, but this can be harmful \u2013 and mechanisms exist to prevent or limit this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, the new study \u2013 led by the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.exeter.ac.uk\/research\/medicalmycology\/\">MRC Centre for Medical Mycology<\/a>&nbsp;at the University of Exeter \u2013 finds a possible evolutionary advantage of these jumping genes in a fungus called&nbsp;<em>Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans&nbsp;<\/em>(Bsal).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not only did they find different versions of these jumping genes repeated multiple times in Bsal\u2019s genome \u2013 but the gene in question appears to have duplicated another group of genes that play a role in how severely it affects infected fire salamanders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBsal and related fungal species infect amphibians worldwide, and have been responsible for more than 90 extinctions,\u201d said first author Theresa Wacker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cBsal infects the skin of salamanders and newts and causes severe wounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIt emerged in Asia, where many newts and salamanders have some tolerance, but it has spread to Europe and is causing European salamander populations to decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cUsing new sequencing technologies, we found that Bsal has undergone a genome expansion compared to related species \u2013 that is to say, it now has a bigger genome with more genes and also more of these \u2018jumping gene\u2019 transposons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The new study found the ability of jumping gene transposons to copy and paste themselves contributed significantly to this expansion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf you think of an organism\u2019s genome as a blueprint, transposons are like having many identical pages,\u201d Wacker explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnd sometimes, during the process of copying and pasting, other parts of the book are also copied.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It appears that this copying and pasting caused by repetitive jumping gene transposons has also amplified some skin-destroying genes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Having more of these skin-destruction genes allow the fungus to destroy the skin of salamanders more quickly, making it more deadly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Senior author Dr Rhys Farrer said repetitive DNA, including jumping genes, is sometimes referred to as \u201cjunk\u201d DNA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cMost organisms have a few jumping gene transposons,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn humans, they typically make up less than 1% of the genome, and we have controlling mechanisms to prevent this from rising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIn Bsal, repeated jumping genes make up about 19% of the genome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTransposon jumping genes can interfere with regular gene function and cause problems for the organism \u2013 but for Bsal this seems to be outweighed by the advantages.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The team are now doing further research.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dr Farrer said: \u201cThis kind of gene repetition is probably more widespread in nature than we currently realise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cIf, as appears to be the case, it confers an evolutionary advantage for the pathogen by making it more virulent, it\u2019s not clear why this isn\u2019t much more common.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The study\u2019s finding shed new light on the evolution of a major amphibian disease, and Dr Farrer called it a \u201cparadigm shift\u201d in terms of identifying repetitive genome content as a driving force behind its pathobiology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The research team included scientists from Imperial College London, and the study was funded by the Wellcome Trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The paper, published in the journal&nbsp;<em>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences<\/em>, is entitled: &#8220;Two-speed genome evolution drives pathogenicity in fungal pathogens of animals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A fungus that infects salamanders contains multiple copies of the same \u201cjumping genes\u201d,&nbsp;scientists have discovered. Jumping genes, called transposons, can \u201ccopy and paste\u201d themselves and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u2018Jumping genes\u2019 help fungus kill salamanders - Latest news from the MRC CMM<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.exeter.ac.uk\/medicalmycology\/2023\/01\/03\/jumping-genes-help-fungus-kill-salamanders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Jumping genes\u2019 help fungus kill salamanders - Latest news from the MRC CMM\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A fungus that infects salamanders contains multiple copies of the same \u201cjumping genes\u201d,&nbsp;scientists have discovered. 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