Comparative analysis of mitochondrial genomes and complex intron arrangements among members of the Ophiostomatales
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Date
2024-08-13
Authors
Mukhopadhyay, Jigeesha
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Abstract
Members of the Ophiostomatales are of economic concern as many are blue-stain fungi including some plant pathogens. The taxonomy of these fungi has been challenging due to the convergent evolution of traits associated with insect dispersal. This project involved comparative sequence analysis of fungal mitochondrial genomes belonging to Ophiostomatales (phylum Ascomycota), which are also rich reservoirs of mobile genetic elements. The work is divided into two chapters. The first chapter is focused on three members of Leptographium sensu lato with inflated mitogenomes owing to abundant introns, including complex intron arrangements. Phylogeny based on mitogenome-derived protein sequences and nuclear markers helped in confirming the separation of Leptographium and Grosmannia species. The second chapter investigates the mitogenomes of nine strains of Ophiostoma ips with a varied global distribution which were sequenced and compared with other members of the Ophiostomatales. A mitogenome intron landscape demonstrated the distribution of the mobile genetic elements and provided insight into the evolutionary dynamics of introns among members of this group of fungi. Examples of complex or nested introns composed of two or three intron modules have been observed in some species, and RNA-Seq analysis suggests possible splicing pathways with regard to resolving complex introns in Ophiostoma ips. Mitochondrial DNA and RNA data for several members of the Ophiostomatales provide the basis for further studies relating to alternative splicing, evolutionary intron dynamics, and taxonomic studies.
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Keywords
mitogenome, Ophiostomatales, RNA Sequencing, introns, phylogeny