Abstract
BackgroundConserved syntenic gene complexes are rare in Arthropods and likely only retained due to functional constraint. Numerous sHSPs have been identified in the genomes of insects, some of which are located clustered in close proximity. Previous phylogenetic analyses of these clustered sHSP have been limited to a small number of holometabolous insect species and have not determined the pattern of evolution of the clustered sHSP genes (sHSP-C) in insect or Arthropod lineages.ResultsUsing eight genomes from representative insect orders and three non-insect arthropod genomes we have identified that a syntenic cluster of sHSPs (sHSP-C) is a hallmark of most Arthropod genomes. Using 11 genomes from Hymenopteran species our phylogenetic analyses have refined the evolution of the sHSP-C in Hymenoptera and found that the sHSP-C is order-specific with evidence of birth-and-death evolution in the hymenopteran lineage. Finally we have shown that the honeybee sHSP-C is co-ordinately expressed and is marked by genomic features, including H3K27me3 histone marks consistent with coordinate regulation, during honeybee ovary activation.ConclusionsThe syntenic sHSP-C is present in most insect genomes, and its conserved coordinate expression and regulation implies that it is an integral genomic component of environmental response in arthropods.
Highlights
Conserved syntenic gene complexes are rare in Arthropods and likely only retained due to functional constraint
Phylogenetics A sHSP‐cluster is a hallmark of arthropod genomes In this study, we examine several classes of small heatshock proteins which all share an extensive amount of genetic and protein sequence similarity
Previous phylogenetic analyses have identified clustered sHSP genes in the holometabolous insects Apis mellifera, Tribolium castaneum, Bombyx mori, and Drosophila melanogaster [11]. We extended these analyses with the addition of representative species from the hemimetabolous insects Ladona fulva, Ephemera danica, Zootermopsis nevadensis, Pediculus humanus, and include non-insect arthropods Tetrachynus urticae [chelicerate]; Daphnia pulex [crustacea]; Strigamia maritima [myriapoda] and the Lophotrochozoan Biomphalaria glabrata [mollusca] as a non-arthropod outgroup in order to systematically examine the evolution of these genes and gene cluster in Arthropods
Summary
Conserved syntenic gene complexes are rare in Arthropods and likely only retained due to functional constraint. Evolutionary conserved syntenic gene complexes are relatively rare in arthropod genomes, with only three major well-characterised examples, the Hox complex [1,2,3,4,5,6], the E(spl)-C [7, 8] and the runt complex [9] represented in the majority of arthropod lineages. Those complexes, in which gene-order remains conserved over evolutionary time, are likely to be constrained by factors such as coordinated regulation (as in the case of the Hox and E(Spl)-C).
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