Origin and evolution of fusidane-type antibiotics biosynthetic pathway through multiple horizontal gene transfers.

Origin and evolution of fusidane-type antibiotics biosynthetic pathway through multiple horizontal gene transfers.

Genome Biol Evol. 2020 Sep 11;:

Authors: Li X, Cheng J, Liu X, Guo X, Liu Y, Fan W, Lu L, Ma Y, Liu T, Tao S, Jiang H

Abstract
Fusidane-type antibiotics represented by fusidic acid, helvolic acid and cephalosporin P1 have very similar core structures, but they are produced by fungi belonging to different taxonomic groups. The origin and evolution of fusidane-type antibiotics biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) in different antibiotic producing strains remained an enigma. In this study, we investigated the distribution and evolution of the fusidane BGCs in 1284 fungal genomes. We identified 12 helvolic acid BGCs, 4 fusidic acid BGCs, and 1 cephalosporin P1 BGC in Pezizomycotina fungi. Phylogenetic analyses indicated six horizontal gene transfer (HGT) events in the evolutionary trajectory of the BGCs, including (i) three transfers across Eurotiomycetes and Sordariomycetes classes; (ii) one transfer between genera under Sordariomycetes class; (iii) two transfers within Aspergillus genus under Eurotiomycetes classes. Finally, we proposed that the ancestor of fusidane BGCs would be originated from the Zoopagomycota by ancient HGT events according to the phylogenetic trees of key enzymes in fusidane BGCs (OSC and P450 genes). Our results extensively clarify the evolutionary trajectory of fusidane BGCs by HGT among distantly related fungi and provide new insights into the evolutionary mechanisms of metabolic pathways in fungi.

PMID: 32915993 [PubMed – as supplied by publisher]

Source: Industry