Scientists decode first genome of free-living parasite cousin, revealing unexpected complexity
Researchers have sequenced the genome of Hexamita inflata, a single-celled organism that reveals how parasites may have evolved from free-living ancestors. The discovery shows this free-living relative has a genome 10 times larger than parasitic cousins, offering clues that could inform drug development and our understanding of how pathogens adapt to infect hosts.
Originaltitel: The expanded genome of <em>Hexamita inflata</em>, a free-living diplomonad
<p>Diplomonads are anaerobic, flagellated protists, being part of the Metamonada group of Eukaryotes. Diplomonads either live as endobionts (parasites and commensals) of animals or free-living in low-oxygen environments. Genomic information is available for parasitic diplomonads like <em>Giardia intestinalis</em> and <em>Spironucleus salmonicida</em>, while little is known about the genomic arrangements of free-living diplomonads. We have generated the first reference genome of a free-living diplomonad, <em>Hexamita inflata</em>. The final version of the genome assembly is fragmented (1241 contigs) but substantially larger (142 Mbp) than the parasitic diplomonad genomes (9.8–14.7 Mbp). It encodes 79,341 proteins; 29,874 have functional annotations and 49,467 are hypothetical proteins. Interspersed repeats comprise 34% of the genome (9617 Retroelements, 2676 DNA transposons). The large expansion of protein-encoding capacity and the interspersed repeats are the major reasons for the large genome size. This genome from a free-living diplomonad will be the basis for further studies of the Diplomonadida lineage and the evolution of parasitism-free living style transitions.</p>