New evidence on complex plant-fungal interactions and their effects

There is a complex interaction between plants and microorganisms, and the long-term close interaction evolution process will promote the exchange and integration of genetic material (horizontal gene transfer)
to a certain extent.
Horizontal gene transfer is a unique genetic driver of adaptive evolution of species
.
Recently, the adaptation and evolutionary genomics of special environmental species of the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences has made new progress in plant-level gene transfer
。  

KP4 (killer protein 4) is a defense gene unique to some fungi, encoding a toxic protein that defends against resource competition for related fungi by inhibiting calcium channel activity
.
This study found that KP4 homologous genes were prevalent in bryophytes (bryophytes, hornworts and liverworts).

Phylogenetic analysis showed that KP4 gene transfer events occurred at least three independent fungal-bryophyte level gene transfer events during bryophyte evolution
.
It was discovered by studying the function of the KP4 gene in Physcomitrium patens Has a conserved function
in fungi.
The deletion of KP4 gene leads to the disorder of calcium ions in plant cells, and causes changes in cell polarity growth and even cell aging and death
.
This work aims to understand the complex plant-fungal interactions and their effects New evidence
is provided.
The research work was published in The P lant Journal
, a botanical journal.
Dr.
Guan Yanlong and Dr.
Ma Lan of the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences are the co-first authors of the paper, and Professor Huang Jinling is the corresponding author
of the paper.
 

Article link 

Another work reported the parallel evolution of the AIM24 (Pfam ID PF01987) gene family in different plant taxa
.
The AIM24 family is little known in plants, and molecular phylogenetic studies have shown the presence of AIM24-A and AIM24-B in plants Two subfamilies, They originate from different bacteria
.
The AIM24-A subfamily is only distributed in bryophytes and ferns, while the AIM24-B subfamily is widely present
in plants.
The study was conducted in Platyptros, Marchantia polymorpha, and Arabidopsis Thalina) has carried out a series of molecular genetics work
such as gene knockout/overexpression/genetic cross-complementation, tissue expression characteristics analysis of genes and transcriptome sequencing analysis.
It was found that both subfamilies were involved in endoplasmic reticulum stress and played an important role in the degradation of misfolded/modified proteins caused by endoplasmic reticulum stress, indicating AIM24-A and AIM24-B It has undergone parallel evolution
in endoplasmic reticulum stress function.
This study lays the foundation for further studies in the
plant AIM24 gene family.
The study was published in the botanical journal Plant Communications, Dr.
Guan Yanlong of the Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Dr.
Chang Guanxiao of Henan University and Zhao Jinjie, Kunming Institute of Botany He is the co-first author of the paper, and researcher Huang Jinling is the corresponding author
.
The above research work has been supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Yunnan Basic Research Program and other projects
.
 

Article link 

Fig.
1KP 4 protein multisequence alignment and phylogenetic tree 

Fig.
2AIM24 protein phylogenetic tree and multi-sequence alignment