Chiropterans Are a Hotspot for Horizontal Transfer of DNA Transposons in Mammalia

• DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msad092
• Publication Date: 2023-04-18T19:12:20Z
• Authors: Nicole S Paulat; Jessica M Storer; Diana D Moreno-Sa...; Austin B Osmanski; Kevin A M Sullivan; Jenna R Grimshaw; Jennifer Korstian; Michaela Halsey; Carlos J Garcia; Claudia Crookshanks; Jaquelyn Roberts; Arian F A Smit; Robert Hubley; Jeb Rosen; Emma C Teeling; Sonja C Vernes; Eugene Myers; Martin Pippel; Thomas Brown; Michael Hiller; ; Gregory Andrews; Joel C Armstrong; Matteo Bianchi; Bruce W Birren; Kevin R Bredemeyer; Ana M Breit; Matthew J Christmas; Hiram Clawson; Joana Damas; Federica Di Palma; Mark Diekhans; Michael X Dong; Eduardo Eizirik; Kaili Fan; Cornelia Fanter; Nicole M Foley; Karin Forsberg-Ni...; Carlos J Garcia; John Gatesy; Steven Gazal; Diane P Genereux; Linda Goodman; Jenna Grimshaw; Michaela K Halsey; Andrew J Harris; Glenn Hickey; Michael Hiller; Allyson G Hindle; Robert M Hubley; Graham M Hughes; Jeremy Johnson; David Juan; Irene M Kaplow; Elinor K Karlsson; Kathleen C Keough; Bogdan Kirilenko; Klaus-Peter Koepfli; Jennifer M Korstian; Amanda Kowalczyk; Sergey V Kozyrev; Alyssa J Lawler; Colleen Lawless; Thomas Lehmann; Danielle L Levesque; Harris A Lewin; Xue Li; Abigail Lind; Kerstin Lindblad-Toh; Ava Mackay-Smith; Voichita D Marinescu; Tomas Marques-Bonet; Victor C Mason; Jennifer R S Meadows; Wynn K Meyer; Jill E Moore; Lucas R Moreira; Diana D Moreno-Sa...; Kathleen M Morrill; Gerard Muntané; William J Murphy; Arcadi Navarro; Martin Nweeia; Sylvia Ortmann; Austin Osmanski; Benedict Paten; Nicole S Paulat; Andreas R Pfenning; BaDoi N Phan; Katherine S Pollard; Henry E Pratt; David A Ray; Steven K Reilly; Jeb R Rosen; Irina Ruf; Louise Ryan; Oliver A Ryder; Pardis C Sabeti; Daniel E Schäffer; Aitor Serres; Beth Shapiro; Arian F A Smit; Mark Springer; Chaitanya Srinivasan; Cynthia Steiner; Jessica M Storer; Kevin A M Sullivan; Patrick F Sullivan; Elisabeth Sundström; Megan A Supple; Ross Swofford; Joy-El Talbot; Emma Teeling; Jason Turner-Maier; Alejandro Valenzuela; Franziska Wagner; Ola Wallerman; Chao Wang; Juehan Wang; Zhiping Weng; Aryn P Wilder; Morgan E Wirthlin; James R Xue; Xiaomeng Zhang; Danny Rojas; Liliana M Dávalos; Kerstin Lindblad-Toh; Elinor K Karlsson; David A Ray
• Keywords: Neuroinformatics; 570; Gene Transfer, Horizontal; QH426 Genetics; fusogenic envelope protein; Microbiology in the medical area; Evolutionsbiologi; Evolution, Molecular; endogenous retrovirus; Fusogenic envelope protein; Chiroptera; Endogenous retrovirus; Genetics; Mikrobiologi inom det medicinska området; Animals; platypus; Monotremes; Genetik; Platypus; QH426; Discoveries; Phylogeny; MCC; Mammals; Evolutionary Biology; 500; DAS; Genetics and Genomics; Genetik och genomik; monotremes; echidna; AC; Echidna; DNA Transposable Elements

Abstract Horizontal transfer of transposable elements (TEs) is an important mechanism contributing to genetic diversity and innovation. Bats (order Chiroptera) have repeatedly been shown to experience horizontal transfer of TEs at what appears to be a high rate compared with other mammals. We investigated the occurrence of horizontally transferred (HT) DNA transposons involving bats. We found over 200 putative HT elements within bats; 16 transposons were shared across distantly related mammalian clades, and 2 other elements were shared with a fish and two lizard species. Our results indicate that bats are a hotspot for horizontal transfer of DNA transposons. These events broadly coincide with the diversification of several bat clades, supporting the hypothesis that DNA transposon invasions have contributed to genetic diversification of bats.