IMA Fungus 15(1): e34078, doi: 10.1186/s43008-024-00160-x
Exploration on cold adaptation of Antarctic lichen via detection of positive selection genes
Yanyan Wang‡, Yaran Zhang‡, Rong Li‡, Ben Qian‡, Xin Du§, Xuyun Qiu‡, Mengmeng Chen‡, Guohui Shi‡, Jiang-Chun Wei, Xinli Wei|, Qi Wu‡‡ Chinese Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of Mycology, Institute of Microbiology, Beijing, China§ University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China| Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
© Yanyan Wang, Yaran Zhang, Rong Li, Ben Qian, Xin Du, Xuyun Qiu, Mengmeng Chen, Guohui Shi, Jiang-Chun Wei, Xinli Wei, Qi Wu. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits to copy and distribute the article for non-commercial purposes, provided that the article is not altered or modified and the original author and source are credited. Citation:
Wang Y, Zhang Y, Li R, Qian B, Du X, Qiu X, Chen M, Shi G, Wei J-C, Wei X, Wu Q (2024) Exploration on cold adaptation of Antarctic lichen via detection of positive selection genes. IMA Fungus 15(1): e34078. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43008-024-00160-x |  |
Abstract
Lichen as mutualistic symbiosis is the dominant organism in various extreme terrestrial environment on Earth, however, the mechanisms of their adaptation to extreme habitats have not been fully elucidated. In this study, we chose the Antarctic dominant lichen species Usnea aurantiacoatra to generate a high-quality genome, carried out phylogenetic analysis using maximum likelihood and identify genes under positive selection. We performed functional enrichment analysis on the positively selected genes (PSGs) and found that most of the PSGs focused on transmembrane transporter activity and vacuole components. This suggest that the genes related to energy storage and transport in Antarctic U. aurantiacoatra were affected by environmental pressure. Inside of the 86 PSGs screened, two protein interaction networks were identified, which were RNA helicase related proteins and regulator of G-protein signaling related proteins. The regulator of the G-protein signaling gene (UaRGS1) was chosen to perform further verification by the lichen genetic manipulation system Umbilicaria muhlenbergii. Given that the absence of UmRgs1 resulted in elevated lethality to cold shock, the role for UaRgs1 in Antarctic U. aurantiacoatra resistance to cold can be inferred. The investigation of lichen adaptation to extreme environments at the molecular level will be opened up.
Keywords
Lichen-forming fungi, Polar region, Genome, Genomic syntenic alignment, Protein interaction network, G-protein signaling