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Akdeniz Z, Havelka M, Stoklasa M, Jiménez-González A, Žárský V, Xu F, Stairs CW, Jerlström-Hultqvist J, Kolísko M, Provazník J, Svärd S, Andersson JO, Tachezy J
Sci Data 12 (1) 192 [2025-02-01; online 2025-02-01]
Diplomonads are anaerobic, flagellated protists, being part of the Metamonada group of Eukaryotes. Diplomonads either live as endobionts (parasites and commensals) of animals or free-living in low-oxygen environments. Genomic information is available for parasitic diplomonads like Giardia intestinalis and Spironucleus salmonicida, while little is known about the genomic arrangements of free-living diplomonads. We have generated the first reference genome of a free-living diplomonad, Hexamita inflata. The final version of the genome assembly is fragmented (1241 contigs) but substantially larger (142 Mbp) than the parasitic diplomonad genomes (9.8-14.7 Mbp). It encodes 79,341 proteins; 29,874 have functional annotations and 49,467 are hypothetical proteins. Interspersed repeats comprise 34% of the genome (9617 Retroelements, 2676 DNA transposons). The large expansion of protein-encoding capacity and the interspersed repeats are the major reasons for the large genome size. This genome from a free-living diplomonad will be the basis for further studies of the Diplomonadida lineage and the evolution of parasitism-free living style transitions.
NGI Uppsala (Uppsala Genome Center) [Service]
National Genomics Infrastructure [Service]
PubMed 39893204
DOI 10.1038/s41597-025-04514-x
Crossref 10.1038/s41597-025-04514-x
pmc: PMC11787283
pii: 10.1038/s41597-025-04514-x