TY  - JOUR
A1  - Singh, Garima
A1  - Calchera, Anjuli
A1  - Schulz, Meike
A1  - Drechsler, Moritz
A1  - Bode, Helge Björn
A1  - Schmitt, Imke
A1  - Dal Grande, Francesco
T1  - Climate-specific biosynthetic gene clusters in populations of a lichen-forming fungus
T2  - Environmental Microbiology
N2  - Natural products can contribute to abiotic stress tolerance in plants and fungi. We hypothesize that biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs), the genomic elements that underlie natural product biosynthesis, display structured differences along elevation gradients. We analysed biosynthetic gene variation in natural populations of the lichen-forming fungus Umbilicaria pustulata. We collected a total of 600 individuals from the Mediterranean and cold-temperate climates. Population genomic analyses indicate that U. pustulata contains three clusters that are highly differentiated between the Mediterranean and cold-temperate populations. One entire cluster is exclusively present in cold-temperate populations, and a second cluster is putatively dysfunctional in all cold-temperate populations. In the third cluster variation is fixed in all cold-temperate populations due to hitchhiking. In these two clusters the presence of consistent allele frequency differences among replicate populations/gradients suggests that selection rather than drift is driving the pattern. We advocate that the landscape of fungal biosynthetic genes is shaped by both positive and hitchhiking selection. We demonstrate, for the first time, the presence of climate-associated BGCs and BGC variations in lichen-forming fungi. While the associated secondary metabolites of the candidate clusters are presently unknown, our study paves the way for targeted discovery of natural products with ecological significance.
Y1  - 2021
UR  - http://publikationen.ub.uni-frankfurt.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/72399
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30:3-723992
SN  - 1462-2920
VL  - 23.2021
IS  - 8
SP  - 4260
EP  - 4275
PB  - Blackwell
CY  - Oxford [u.a.]
ER  -