Latent homology and convergent regulatory evolution underlies the repeated emergence of yeasts

László G. Nagy (), Robin A. Ohm, Gábor M. Kovács, Dimitrios Floudas, Robert Riley, Attila Gácser, Mátyás Sipiczki, John M. Davis, Sharon L. Doty, G Sybren de Hoog, B. Franz Lang, Joseph W. Spatafora, Francis M. Martin, Igor V. Grigoriev and David S. Hibbett ()
Additional contact information
László G. Nagy: Clark University
Robin A. Ohm: U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute
Gábor M. Kovács: Institute of Biology, Eötvös Loránd University
Dimitrios Floudas: Clark University
Robert Riley: U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute
Attila Gácser: University of Szeged
Mátyás Sipiczki: University of Debrecen
John M. Davis: School of Forest Resources and Conservation, University of Florida
Sharon L. Doty: School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, College of the Environment, University of Washington
G Sybren de Hoog: CBS-KNAW Fungal Biodiversity Centre
B. Franz Lang: Université de Montréal
Joseph W. Spatafora: Oregon State University
Francis M. Martin: INRA, UMR 1136, INRA-Nancy Université, Interactions Arbres/Microorganismes
Igor V. Grigoriev: U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute
David S. Hibbett: Clark University

Nature Communications, 2014, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-8

Abstract: Abstract Convergent evolution is common throughout the tree of life, but the molecular mechanisms causing similar phenotypes to appear repeatedly are obscure. Yeasts have arisen in multiple fungal clades, but the genetic causes and consequences of their evolutionary origins are unknown. Here we show that the potential to develop yeast forms arose early in fungal evolution and became dominant independently in multiple clades, most likely via parallel diversification of Zn-cluster transcription factors, a fungal-specific family involved in regulating yeast–filamentous switches. Our results imply that convergent evolution can happen by the repeated deployment of a conserved genetic toolkit for the same function in distinct clades via regulatory evolution. We suggest that this mechanism might be a common source of evolutionary convergence even at large time scales.

Date: 2014
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms5471 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:5:y:2014:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms5471

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

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5471

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 ().