Did you know that orchids have a big chunk of fungal mtDNA stuck in their own mitochondrial genomes?? In this new preprint, we found that fungal-derived tRNAs are functional in the orchid mitochondria. www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1... 1/4 - ThreadSky

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sloanevolab.bsky.social • 97 days ago

Did you know that orchids have a big chunk of fungal mtDNA stuck in their own mitochondrial genomes?? In this new preprint, we found that fungal-derived tRNAs are functional in the orchid mitochondria.

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.11.19.624230v1

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Comments

sloanevolab.bsky.social•97 days ago

Previous studies (Sinn and Barrett 2020; Valencia-D et al. 2023) documented this ancient horizontal gene transfer, but it’s been unclear whether any of this DNA regions is functional.

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sloanevolab.bsky.social•97 days ago

We used specialized RNA sequencing techniques in the coralroot orchid and found that the fungal protein-coding genes have all been pseudogenized but some tRNA genes are expressed, processed, and charged with amino acids.

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sloanevolab.bsky.social•97 days ago

Remarkably, the fungal tRNA genes are just part of the mix. The orchid mitochondrial genome has also gained tRNA genes from the plastid and bacteria.

Great collaboration with Jess Warren and the Sanchez-Puerta lab. We’d love feedback!

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