Figure 2: Putative mechanism for the evolution of ARId in the P. vanderplanki genome. | Nature Communications

Figure 2: Putative mechanism for the evolution of ARId in the P. vanderplanki genome.

From: Comparative genome sequencing reveals genomic signature of extreme desiccation tolerance in the anhydrobiotic midge

Figure 2

ARIds are genomic regions containing clusters of duplicated genes that are transcriptionally active during anhydrobiosis. (a) A gene of foreign origin (for example, LEA protein) is incorporated into P. vanderplanki genome by HGT and undergoes extensive duplications and shuffling. (b) A pre-existing P. vanderplanki gene originally not involved in anhydrobiosis and originating from another region of P. vanderplanki genome was inserted to a new locus by intragenomic duplication (IGD) and undergoes extensive duplications and shuffling to acquire or improve a specific function for desiccation tolerance. All the genes in the ARIds from both a,b become highly upregulated during anhydrobiosis (red arrows).

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