{"author":[{"full_name":"Habig, Michael","first_name":"Michael","last_name":"Habig"},{"first_name":"Anna V","last_name":"Grasse","full_name":"Grasse, Anna V","id":"406F989C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"},{"last_name":"Müller","first_name":"Judith","full_name":"Müller, Judith"},{"full_name":"Stukenbrock, Eva H.","first_name":"Eva H.","last_name":"Stukenbrock"},{"last_name":"Leitner","first_name":"Hanna","id":"8fc5c6f6-5903-11ec-abad-c83f046253e7","full_name":"Leitner, Hanna"},{"id":"2F64EC8C-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","full_name":"Cremer, Sylvia","orcid":"0000-0002-2193-3868","last_name":"Cremer","first_name":"Sylvia"}],"language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"day":"12","year":"2024","abstract":[{"lang":"eng","text":"Entire chromosomes are typically only transmitted vertically from one generation to the next. The horizontal transfer of such chromosomes has long been considered improbable, yet gained recent support in several pathogenic fungi where it may affect the fitness or host specificity. To date, it is unknown how these transfers occur, how common they are and whether they can occur between different species. In this study, we show multiple independent instances of horizontal transfers of the same accessory chromosome between two distinct strains of the asexual entomopathogenic fungus<jats:italic>Metarhizium robertsii</jats:italic>during experimental co-infection of its insect host, the Argentine ant. Notably, only the one chromosome – but no other – was transferred from the donor to the recipient strain. The recipient strain, now harboring the accessory chromosome, exhibited a competitive advantage under certain host conditions. By phylogenetic analysis we further demonstrate that the same accessory chromosome was horizontally transferred in a natural environment between<jats:italic>M. robertsii</jats:italic>and another congeneric insect pathogen,<jats:italic>M. guizhouense</jats:italic>. Hence horizontal chromosome transfer is not limited to the observed frequent events within species during experimental infections but also occurs naturally across species. The transferred accessory chromosome contains genes that might be involved in its preferential horizontal transfer, encoding putative histones and histone-modifying enzymes, but also putative virulence factors that may support its establishment. Our study reveals that both intra- and interspecies horizontal transfer of entire chromosomes is more frequent than previously assumed, likely representing a not uncommon mechanism for gene exchange.</jats:p><jats:sec><jats:title>Significance Statement</jats:title><jats:p>The enormous success of bacterial pathogens has been attributed to their ability to exchange genetic material between one another. Similarly, in eukaryotes, horizontal transfer of genetic material allowed the spread of virulence factors across species. The horizontal transfer of whole chromosomes could be an important pathway for such exchange of genetic material, but little is known about the origin of transferable chromosomes and how frequently they are exchanged. Here, we show that the transfer of accessory chromosomes - chromosomes that are non-essential but may provide fitness benefits - is common during fungal co-infections and is even possible between distant pathogenic species, highlighting the importance of horizontal gene transfer via chromosome transfer also for the evolution and function of eukaryotic pathogens."}],"oa":1,"pmid":1,"volume":121,"date_published":"2024-03-12T00:00:00Z","quality_controlled":"1","scopus_import":"1","publication_identifier":{"issn":["0027-8424"],"eissn":["1091-6490"]},"ddc":["570"],"title":"Frequent horizontal chromosome transfer between asexual fungal insect pathogens","intvolume":"       121","citation":{"mla":"Habig, Michael, et al. “Frequent Horizontal Chromosome Transfer between Asexual Fungal Insect Pathogens.” <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America</i>, vol. 121, no. 11, e2316284121, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2024, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316284121\">10.1073/pnas.2316284121</a>.","ista":"Habig M, Grasse AV, Müller J, Stukenbrock EH, Leitner H, Cremer S. 2024. Frequent horizontal chromosome transfer between asexual fungal insect pathogens. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 121(11), e2316284121.","ieee":"M. Habig, A. V. Grasse, J. Müller, E. H. Stukenbrock, H. Leitner, and S. Cremer, “Frequent horizontal chromosome transfer between asexual fungal insect pathogens,” <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America</i>, vol. 121, no. 11. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2024.","chicago":"Habig, Michael, Anna V Grasse, Judith Müller, Eva H. Stukenbrock, Hanna Leitner, and Sylvia Cremer. “Frequent Horizontal Chromosome Transfer between Asexual Fungal Insect Pathogens.” <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America</i>. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2024. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316284121\">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316284121</a>.","apa":"Habig, M., Grasse, A. V., Müller, J., Stukenbrock, E. H., Leitner, H., &#38; Cremer, S. (2024). Frequent horizontal chromosome transfer between asexual fungal insect pathogens. <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America</i>. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316284121\">https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316284121</a>","ama":"Habig M, Grasse AV, Müller J, Stukenbrock EH, Leitner H, Cremer S. Frequent horizontal chromosome transfer between asexual fungal insect pathogens. <i>Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America</i>. 2024;121(11). doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2316284121\">10.1073/pnas.2316284121</a>","short":"M. Habig, A.V. Grasse, J. Müller, E.H. Stukenbrock, H. Leitner, S. Cremer, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 121 (2024)."},"article_processing_charge":"Yes (in subscription journal)","article_number":"e2316284121","tmp":{"legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode","name":"Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)","short":"CC BY-NC-ND (4.0)","image":"/images/cc_by_nc_nd.png"},"has_accepted_license":"1","publication":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America","issue":"11","publication_status":"published","date_created":"2023-10-31T13:30:00Z","month":"03","external_id":{"pmid":["38442176"]},"publisher":"Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences","license":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/","article_type":"original","status":"public","_id":"14478","file":[{"file_size":5750361,"creator":"dernst","access_level":"open_access","date_updated":"2024-03-19T09:02:57Z","success":1,"date_created":"2024-03-19T09:02:57Z","checksum":"f5e871db617b682edc71fcd08670dc81","file_name":"2024_PNAS_Habig.pdf","file_id":"15124","relation":"main_file","content_type":"application/pdf"}],"ec_funded":1,"acknowledgement":"We thank Bernhardt Steinwender, Jorgen Eilenberg, and Nicolai V. Meyling for the fungal strains. We further thank Chengshu Wang for providing the short sequencing reads for M. guizhouense ARESF977 he used for his published genome assembly, and Kristian Ullrich for help in the bioinformatics analysis for methylation pattern in Nanopore reads, and the VBC and the Max Planck Society for the use of their sequencing centers. We thank Barbara Milutinović and Hinrich Schulenburg for discussion, and Tal Dagan and Jens Rolff for comments on a previous version of the manuscript. Fig. 1A was created with BioRender.com. This study received funding by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (No. 771402; EPIDEMICSonCHIP) to S.C. and by the German Research Foundation (DFG grant HA9263/1-1) to M.H.","file_date_updated":"2024-03-19T09:02:57Z","type":"journal_article","date_updated":"2024-03-19T09:07:20Z","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","project":[{"call_identifier":"H2020","grant_number":"771402","_id":"2649B4DE-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","name":"Epidemics in ant societies on a chip"}],"doi":"10.1073/pnas.2316284121","department":[{"_id":"SyCr"}],"oa_version":"Published Version"}