Recurrent DNA virus domestication leading to different parasite virulence strategies

Apolline Pichon (1, 2) , Annie Bézier (3) , Serge Urbach (4, 5) , Jean-Marc Aury (6, 7) , Véronique Jouan (8) , Marc Ravallec (8) , Julie Guy (9) , François Cousserans (8) , Julien Thézé (3) , Jérémy Gauthier (10) , Edith Demettre (4, 5) , Sandra Schmieder (11) , François Wurmser (12) , Vonick Sibut (3) , Marylène Poirié (13) , Dominique Colinet (13) , Corinne da Silva (6, 7) , Arnaud Couloux (6, 7) , Valérie Barbe (6) , Jean-Michel Drezen (3) , Anne-Nathalie Volkoff (8)

1 IDHES - Institutions et Dynamiques Historiques de l'Économie et de la Société
2 UEVE - Université d'Évry-Val-d'Essonne
3 IRBI - Institut de recherche sur la biologie de l'insecte
4 IGF - Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle
5 BCM - BioCampus
6 UMR 8030 - Génomique métabolique
7 LBGB - Laboratoire de Bioinformatique pour la Génomique et la Biodiversité
8 DGIMI - Diversité, Génomes & Interactions Microorganismes - Insectes [Montpellier]
9 GENOSCOPE - Genoscope - Centre national de séquençage [Evry]
10 CRESAT - Centre de Recherches sur les Économies, les Sociétés, les Arts et les Techniques
11 IPMC - Institut de pharmacologie moléculaire et cellulaire
12 LEGS - Laboratoire Evolution, Génomes et Spéciation
13 ISA - Institut Sophia Agrobiotech

Relics of ancient infections are abundant in eukaryote genomes, but little is known about how they evolve when they confer a functional benefit on their host. We show here, for the first time, that the virus-like particles shown to protect Venturia canescens eggs against host immunity are derived from a nudivirus genome incorporated by the parasitic wasp into its own genetic material. Nudivirus hijacking was also at the origin of protective particles from braconid wasps. However, we show here that the viral genes produce " liposomes " that wrap and deliver V. canescens virulence proteins, whereas the particles are used as gene transfer agents in braconid wasps. Our findings indicate that virus domestication has occurred repeatedly during parasitic wasp evolution but with different evolutionary trajectories after endogenization, resulting in different virulence molecule delivery strategies.

Domains: Invertebrate Zoology; Populations and Evolution [q-bio.PE]; Virology

Apolline Pichon, Annie Bézier, Serge Urbach, Jean-Marc Aury, Véronique Jouan, et al.. Recurrent DNA virus domestication leading to different parasite virulence strategies. Science Advances , 2015, 1 (10), pp.e1501150. ⟨10.1126/sciadv.1501150⟩. ⟨hal-01318262⟩