Allelic resolution of insect and spider silk genes reveals hidden genetic diversity

Arthropod silk is vital to the evolutionary success of hundreds of thousands of species. The primary proteins in silks are often encoded by long, repetitive gene sequences. Until recently, sequencing and assembling these complex gene sequences has proven intractable given their repetitive structure....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2023-05, Vol.120 (18), p.e2221528120-e2221528120
Main Authors: Frandsen, Paul B, Hotaling, Scott, Powell, Ashlyn, Heckenhauer, Jacqueline, Kawahara, Akito Y, Baker, Richard H, Hayashi, Cheryl Y, Ríos-Touma, Blanca, Holzenthal, Ralph, Pauls, Steffen U, Stewart, Russell J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alleles
Amino Acid Sequence
Animals
Arthropods
Biological Sciences
Butterflies & moths
Butterflies - genetics
DNA sequencing
Evolution
Fibroins - chemistry
Gene sequencing
Genes
Genetic diversity
Genetic Variation
Genotypes
Insect Proteins - genetics
Insecta - genetics
Insects
Origins
Phenotypes
Phylogeny
Proteins
Repetitive structures
Silk
Silk - chemistry
Spiders
Spiders - genetics
Variation
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Summary:Arthropod silk is vital to the evolutionary success of hundreds of thousands of species. The primary proteins in silks are often encoded by long, repetitive gene sequences. Until recently, sequencing and assembling these complex gene sequences has proven intractable given their repetitive structure. Here, using high-quality long-read sequencing, we show that there is extensive variation-both in terms of length and repeat motif order-between alleles of silk genes within individual arthropods. Further, this variation exists across two deep, independent origins of silk which diverged more than 500 Mya: the insect clade containing caddisflies and butterflies and spiders. This remarkable convergence in previously overlooked patterns of allelic variation across multiple origins of silk suggests common mechanisms for the generation and maintenance of structural protein-coding genes. Future genomic efforts to connect genotypes to phenotypes should account for such allelic variation.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.2221528120