Genome of the parasitoid wasp Cotesia chilonis sheds light on amino acid resource exploitation

作者：Xinhai Ye, Shijiao Xiong, Ziwen Teng, Yi Yang, Jiale Wang, Kaili Yu, Huizi Wu, Mei Yang, Cheng Xue, Zhichao Yan, Chuanlin Yin, Fang Wang, Hongwei Yao, Qi Fang, Qisheng Song, Gōngyín Yè, Fei Li · 发表于：BMC Biology · 年份：2022 · DOI：10.1186/s12915-022-01313-3 · 被引用次数：33 · 研究领域：Insect-Plant Interactions and Control、Invertebrate Immune Response Mechanisms、Neurobiology and Insect Physiology Research

BACKGROUND: A fundamental feature of parasitism is the nutritional exploitation of host organisms by their parasites. Parasitoid wasps lay eggs on arthropod hosts, exploiting them for nutrition to support larval development by using diverse effectors aimed at regulating host metabolism. However, the genetic components and molecular mechanisms at the basis of such exploitation, especially the utilization of host amino acid resources, remain largely unknown. To address this question, here, we present a chromosome-level genome assembly of the parasitoid wasp Cotesia chilonis and reconstruct its amino acid biosynthetic pathway. RESULTS: Analyses of the amino acid synthetic pathway indicate that C. chilonis lost the ability to synthesize ten amino acids, which was confirmed by feeding experiments with amino acid-depleted media. Of the ten pathways, nine are known to have been lost in the common ancestor of animals. We find that the ability to synthesize arginine was also lost in C. chilonis because of the absence of two key genes in the arginine synthesis pathway. Further analyses of the genomes of 72 arthropods species show that the loss of arginine synthesis is common in arthropods. Metabolomic analyses by UPLC-MS/MS reveal that the temporal concentrations of arginine, serine, tyrosine, and alanine are significantly higher in host (Chilo suppressalis) hemolymph at 3 days after parasitism, whereas the temporal levels of 5-hydroxylysine, glutamic acid, methionine, and lysine are s...