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Phylogenetic analyses suggest centipede venom arsenals were repeatedly stocked by horizontal gene transfer

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  • Eivind A. B. Undheim

    (NTNU
    University of Oslo
    University of Queensland)

  • Ronald A. Jenner

    (Natural History Museum)

Abstract

Venoms have evolved over a hundred times in animals. Venom toxins are thought to evolve mostly by recruitment of endogenous proteins with physiological functions. Here we report phylogenetic analyses of venom proteome-annotated venom gland transcriptome data, assisted by genomic analyses, to show that centipede venoms have recruited at least five gene families from bacterial and fungal donors, involving at least eight horizontal gene transfer events. These results establish centipedes as currently the only known animals with venoms used in predation and defence that contain multiple gene families derived from horizontal gene transfer. The results also provide the first evidence for the implication of horizontal gene transfer in the evolutionary origin of venom in an animal lineage. Three of the bacterial gene families encode virulence factors, suggesting that horizontal gene transfer can provide a fast track channel for the evolution of novelty by the exaptation of bacterial weapons into animal venoms.

Suggested Citation

  • Eivind A. B. Undheim & Ronald A. Jenner, 2021. "Phylogenetic analyses suggest centipede venom arsenals were repeatedly stocked by horizontal gene transfer," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-21093-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21093-8
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    Cited by:

    1. Michael J. Maxwell & Chris Thekkedam & Cedric Lamboley & Yanni K.-Y. Chin & Theo Crawford & Jennifer J. Smith & Junyu Liu & Xinying Jia & Irina Vetter & Derek R. Laver & Bradley S. Launikonis & Angela, 2023. "A bivalent remipede toxin promotes calcium release via ryanodine receptor activation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-13, December.
    2. Wai Lok So & Wenyan Nong & Yichun Xie & Tobias Baril & Hai-yao Ma & Zhe Qu & Jasmine Haimovitz & Thomas Swale & Juan Diego Gaitan-Espitia & Kwok Fai Lau & Stephen S. Tobe & William G. Bendena & Zhen-p, 2022. "Myriapod genomes reveal ancestral horizontal gene transfer and hormonal gene loss in millipedes," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, December.

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