TY - JOUR

T1 - Origin and Evolution of Plant Long Terminal Repeat Retrotransposons with Additional Ribonuclease H

AU - Biryukov, Mikhail

AU - Ustyantsev, Kirill

N1 - The work was partially funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research grant (20-34-90114 to K.U.). Work of M.B. and access to cluster computing was supported by the Russian state budget project (FWNR-2022-0016). © The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution.

PY - 2023/9/4

Y1 - 2023/9/4

N2 - Retroviruses originated from long terminal repeat retrotransposons (LTR-RTs) through several structural adaptations. One such modification was the arrangement of an additional ribonuclease H (aRH) domain next to native RH, followed by degradation and subfunctionalization of the latter. We previously showed that this retrovirus-like structure independently evolved in Tat LTR-RTs in flowering plants, proposing its origin from sequential rearrangements of ancestral Tat structures identified in lycophytes and conifers. However, most nonflowering plant genome assemblies were not available at that time, therefore masking the history of aRH acquisition by Tat and challenging our hypothesis. Here, we revisited Tat's evolution scenario upon the aRH acquisition by covering most of the extant plant phyla. We show that Tat evolved and obtained aRH in an ancestor of land plants. Importantly, we found the retrovirus-like structure in clubmosses, hornworts, ferns, and gymnosperms, suggesting its ancient origin, broad propagation, and yet-to-be-understood benefit for the LTR-RTs' adaptation.

AB - Retroviruses originated from long terminal repeat retrotransposons (LTR-RTs) through several structural adaptations. One such modification was the arrangement of an additional ribonuclease H (aRH) domain next to native RH, followed by degradation and subfunctionalization of the latter. We previously showed that this retrovirus-like structure independently evolved in Tat LTR-RTs in flowering plants, proposing its origin from sequential rearrangements of ancestral Tat structures identified in lycophytes and conifers. However, most nonflowering plant genome assemblies were not available at that time, therefore masking the history of aRH acquisition by Tat and challenging our hypothesis. Here, we revisited Tat's evolution scenario upon the aRH acquisition by covering most of the extant plant phyla. We show that Tat evolved and obtained aRH in an ancestor of land plants. Importantly, we found the retrovirus-like structure in clubmosses, hornworts, ferns, and gymnosperms, suggesting its ancient origin, broad propagation, and yet-to-be-understood benefit for the LTR-RTs' adaptation.

KW - Ribonuclease H/genetics

KW - Retroelements/genetics

KW - Ferns

KW - Cycadopsida

KW - Terminal Repeat Sequences/genetics

UR - https://www.scopus.com/record/display.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85171901106&origin=inward&txGid=717457dd64a9b88f26c8e1152ecacbfa

U2 - 10.1093/gbe/evad161

DO - 10.1093/gbe/evad161

M3 - Article

C2 - 37697050

VL - 15

JO - Genome Biology and Evolution

JF - Genome Biology and Evolution

SN - 1759-6653

IS - 9

M1 - evad161

ER -