11/11/2024
We are pleased to invite you to our next Life Sciences Seminar taking place this Thursday at 1pm in STEM 3.1. We will be welcoming Dr Megan McDonald from the University of Birmingham. Dr McDonald’s talk will focus on how fungal pathogens are able to exchange genetic material via the process of horizontal gene transfer, in particular drawing on examples of how pathogenicity genes can be mobilised via giant ‘starship’ transposons.
As usual, this talk will take place in hybrid-format, meaning you can join in-person in STEM 3.1 or online via Zoom (meeting link below). Further details on the seminar and speaker can be found below.
I hope to see many of you there.
When: 1pm Thursday 14th November
Where: STEM 3.1 and online via Zoom (https://essex-university.zoom.us/j/97650231218)
Who: Dr Megan McDonald (University of Birmingham)
Summary: Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a tool that many organisms use to rapidly adapt to novel hosts or environments. One well-known example of HGT is the movement of the necrotrophic effector ToxA between three fungal wheat pathogens, Parastagonospora nodorum, Pyrenophora tritici-repentis and Bipolaris sorokiniana. Defining the extent of horizontally transferred DNA is important because it can define the mechanisms that facilitate HGT. Our previous analysis of ToxA and its surrounding 14 kb showed that this region was a class II DNA transposon we named ToxhAT due to the hAT-like transposase gene near to ToxA. Importantly, there was some evidence that this transposon may remain active and mobile in B. sorokiniana. Long-read genome sequencing of eight ToxhAT carrying B. sorokiniana isolates confirmed that ToxhAT is an active transposon. In addition to confirming ToxhAT is an active transposon, these assemblies revealed that ToxhAT was a passenger within a giant transposon (~200kb). This transposon, Sanctuary I, has been classified as a giant Starship transposon a new transposon family found in fungi. In parallel, the region carrying ToxhAT in Pyrenophora tritici-repentis has also been shown to be a mobile Starship, named “Horizon”. This indicates two independent captures of the smaller ToxhAT by these large transposons.
