Starships are active eukaryotic transposable elements mobilized by a new family of tyrosine recombinases
Open accessPublished version of a preprint
Abstract
Transposable elements in eukaryotic organisms have historically been considered “selfish,” at best conferring indirect benefits to their host organisms. The Starships are a recently discovered feature in fungal genomes that are, in some cases, predicted to confer beneficial traits to their hosts and also have hallmarks of being transposable elements. Here, we provide experimental evidence that Starships are indeed autonomous transposons, using the model Paecilomyces variotii , and identify the HhpA “Captain” tyrosine recombinase as essential for their mobilization into genomic sites with a specific target site consensus sequence. Furthermore, we identify multiple recent horizontal gene transfers of Starships , implying that they jump between species. Fungal genomes have mechanisms to defend against mobile elements, which are frequently detrimental to the host. We discover that Starships are also vulnerable to repeat-induced point mutation defense, thereby having implications on the evolutionary stability of such elements.
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- Authors
- Urquhart, A. S., Vogan, A. A., Gardiner, D. M., & Idnurm, A.
- Affiliations
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU)
- Uppsala University (SE)
- The University of Melbourne (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Urquhart, Andrew S.
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2023-04-06
- Volume
- 120
- Issue
- 15
- Pages
- e2214521120-e2214521120
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC10104507
- OpenAlex
- W4362657308
- Cited by
- 57
- References
- 5
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 19 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 8.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation
- Svenska Forskningsrådet Formas (2019-01227)
- Canada Excellence Research Chairs, Government of Canada
- Vetenskapsrådet (2021-04290)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Plant Science › Chromosomal and Genetic Variations
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Fungal and yeast genetics research
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
- Keywords
- Starship, transposable elements, autonomous transposons, tyrosine recombinases, Paecilomyces variotii, fungal genome, horizontal gene transfer, repeat-induced point mutation, transposon defense, mobile genetic elements
- MeSH terms
- DNA Transposable Elements, Tyrosine, Evolution, Molecular, Gene Transfer, Horizontal, Recombinases, Eukaryota
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