Reverse transcriptase genes are highly abundant and transcriptionally active in marine plankton assemblages

Magali Lescot, Pascal Hingamp, Kenji K Kojima, Emilie Villar, Sarah Romac, Alaguraj Veluchamy, Martine Boccara, Olivier Jaillon, Daniele Ludicone, Chris Bowler, Patrick Wincker, Jean-Michel Claverie, Hiroyuki Ogata

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

18 Scopus citations

Abstract

Genes encoding reverse transcriptases (RTs) are found in most eukaryotes, often as a component of retrotransposons, as well as in retroviruses and in prokaryotic retroelements. We investigated the abundance, classification and transcriptional status of RTs based on Tara Oceans marine metagenomes and metatranscriptomes encompassing a wide organism size range. Our analyses revealed that RTs predominate large-size fraction metagenomes (>5 μm), where they reached a maximum of 13.5% of the total gene abundance. Metagenomic RTs were widely distributed across the phylogeny of known RTs, but many belonged to previously uncharacterized clades. Metatranscriptomic RTs showed distinct abundance patterns across samples compared with metagenomic RTs. The relative abundances of viral and bacterial RTs among identified RT sequences were higher in metatranscriptomes than in metagenomes and these sequences were detected in all metatranscriptome size fractions. Overall, these observations suggest an active proliferation of various RT-assisted elements, which could be involved in genome evolution or adaptive processes of plankton assemblage.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)1134-1146
Number of pages13
JournalThe ISME Journal
Volume10
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 27 2015

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