Two novel venom proteins underlie divergent parasitic strategies between a generalist and a specialist parasite

Jianhua Huang (), Jiani Chen, Gangqi Fang, Lan Pang, Sicong Zhou, Yuenan Zhou, Zhongqiu Pan, Qichao Zhang, Yifeng Sheng, Yueqi Lu, Zhiguo Liu, Yixiang Zhang, Guiyun Li, Min Shi, Xuexin Chen () and Shuai Zhan ()
Additional contact information
Jianhua Huang: Zhejiang University
Jiani Chen: Zhejiang University
Gangqi Fang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Lan Pang: Zhejiang University
Sicong Zhou: Zhejiang University
Yuenan Zhou: Zhejiang University
Zhongqiu Pan: Zhejiang University
Qichao Zhang: Zhejiang University
Yifeng Sheng: Zhejiang University
Yueqi Lu: Zhejiang University
Zhiguo Liu: Zhejiang University
Yixiang Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Guiyun Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Min Shi: Zhejiang University
Xuexin Chen: Zhejiang University
Shuai Zhan: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-16

Abstract: Abstract Parasitoids are ubiquitous in natural ecosystems. Parasitic strategies are highly diverse among parasitoid species, yet their underlying genetic bases are poorly understood. Here, we focus on the divergent adaptation of a specialist and a generalist drosophilid parasitoids. We find that a novel protein (Lar) enables active immune suppression by lysing the host lymph glands, eventually leading to successful parasitism by the generalist. Meanwhile, another novel protein (Warm) contributes to a passive strategy by attaching the laid eggs to the gut and other organs of the host, leading to incomplete encapsulation and helping the specialist escape the host immune response. We find that these diverse parasitic strategies both originated from lateral gene transfer, followed with duplication and specialization, and that they might contribute to the shift in host ranges between parasitoids. Our results increase our understanding of how novel gene functions originate and how they contribute to host adaptation.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-20332-8 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-20332-8

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-20332-8

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().