Horizontal gene transfer has impacted cox1 gene evolution in Cassytha filiformis

Abstract

The gene cox1 is one of the most reported mitochondrial genes involved in horizontal gene transfer among angiosperms. However, whether different cox1 copies exist in different populations of a species and whether any other novel way except intron homing exists for cox1 intron acquisition is less understood. In this study, we chose Cassytha filiformis, a parasitic plant from the angiosperm family Lauraceae, as an example to study cox1 variation and evolution. We identified the stable and inheritable co-occurrence of two copies of cox1 genes, which were different in base composition and insertion/deletion among samples of a single species, C. filiformis. The bioinformatic analyses revealed that Type I copy had intact open reading frames, but type II copy had premature stop codons and was a pseudogene. Further INDEL characterization, phylogenetic analyses, and CCT comparisons consistently support two different origins for the two types of C. filiformis cox1 genes. Type I cox1 was likely vertically inherited within the magnoliids but it has captured an intron from another species, whereas the entire type II intron-containing cox1 has most likely been transferred integrally from Cuscuta or other Convolvulaceae species. The finding of the two independent horizontal gene transfer events associated with C. filiformis cox1 genes not only promotes our understanding of the evolutionary history of C. filiformis, but also leaves intriguing evolutionary questions that merits further efforts.