Author
Listed:
- Blair G. Paul
(Marine Science Institute, University of California)
- Sarah C. Bagby
(Marine Science Institute, University of California)
- Elizabeth Czornyj
(Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of California)
- Diego Arambula
(Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of California)
- Sumit Handa
(University of California San Diego)
- Alexander Sczyrba
(Center for Biotechnology and Faculty of Technology, Bielefeld University
DOE Joint Genome Institute)
- Partho Ghosh
(University of California San Diego)
- Jeff F. Miller
(Immunology and Molecular Genetics, University of California
Molecular Biology Institute, University of California
California NanoSystems Institute, University of California)
- David L. Valentine
(Marine Science Institute, University of California
University of California Santa Barbara)
Abstract
In the evolutionary arms race between microbes, their parasites, and their neighbours, the capacity for rapid protein diversification is a potent weapon. Diversity-generating retroelements (DGRs) use mutagenic reverse transcription and retrohoming to generate myriad variants of a target gene. Originally discovered in pathogens, these retroelements have been identified in bacteria and their viruses, but never in archaea. Here we report the discovery of intact DGRs in two distinct intraterrestrial archaeal systems: a novel virus that appears to infect archaea in the marine subsurface, and, separately, two uncultivated nanoarchaea from the terrestrial subsurface. The viral DGR system targets putative tail fibre ligand-binding domains, potentially generating >1018 protein variants. The two single-cell nanoarchaeal genomes each possess ≥4 distinct DGRs. Against an expected background of low genome-wide mutation rates, these results demonstrate a previously unsuspected potential for rapid, targeted sequence diversification in intraterrestrial archaea and their viruses.
Suggested Citation
Blair G. Paul & Sarah C. Bagby & Elizabeth Czornyj & Diego Arambula & Sumit Handa & Alexander Sczyrba & Partho Ghosh & Jeff F. Miller & David L. Valentine, 2015.
"Targeted diversity generation by intraterrestrial archaea and archaeal viruses,"
Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 6(1), pages 1-8, May.
Handle:
RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms7585
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7585
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