小柯机器人

浙江大学沈星星等研究人员合作发现，HGT在昆虫中广泛存在并有助于鳞翅目动物的雄性求爱。相关论文于2022年7月18日在线发表在《细胞》杂志上。

研究人员系统地研究了218种不同昆虫的高质量基因组中的水平基因转移（HGT），发现它们通过741次不同的转移从非后生动物的供体中获得了1410个表现出不同功能的基因，包括许多以前没有报道的基因。鳞翅目动物的HGT获得基因的平均数量最高。含有内含子的HGT获得的基因比缺乏内含子的基因表现出更高的表达水平，这表明内含子的增加可能参与了HGT适应。

最后，研究人员使用CRISPR-Cas9系统编辑普遍未被报道的基因LOC105383139，该基因被转移到飞蛾和蝴蝶的最后一个共同祖先。在小菜蛾中，缺乏LOC105383139的雄性向雌性求爱的次数明显减少。研究人员认为，HGT一直是昆虫适应的一个主要贡献者。

据介绍，HGT是塑造原核生物和真核生物基因组的重要演化力量。HGT获得的基因在昆虫中已有零星的报道，而昆虫是一个包含50%以上动物的类群。

附：英文原文

Title: HGT is widespread in insects and contributes to male courtship in lepidopterans

Author: Yang Li, Zhiguo Liu, Chao Liu, Zheyi Shi, Lan Pang, Chuzhen Chen, Yun Chen, Ronghui Pan, Wenwu Zhou, Xue-xin Chen, Antonis Rokas, Jianhua Huang, Xing-Xing Shen

Issue&Volume: 2022-07-18

Abstract: Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is an important evolutionary force shaping prokaryoticand eukaryotic genomes. HGT-acquired genes have been sporadically reported in insects,a lineage containing >50% of animals. We systematically examined HGT in 218 high-qualitygenomes of diverse insects and found that they acquired 1,410 genes exhibiting diversefunctions, including many not previously reported, via 741 distinct transfers fromnon-metazoan donors. Lepidopterans had the highest average number of HGT-acquiredgenes. HGT-acquired genes containing introns exhibited substantially higher expressionlevels than genes lacking introns, suggesting that intron gains were likely involvedin HGT adaptation. Lastly, we used the CRISPR-Cas9 system to edit the prevalent unreportedgene LOC105383139, which was transferred into the last common ancestor of moths and butterflies. Indiamondback moths, males lacking LOC105383139 courted females significantly less. We conclude that HGT has been a major contributorto insect adaptation.

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.06.014

Source: https://www.cell.com/cell/fulltext/S0092-8674(22)00719-X