{"doi":"10.1093/molbev/msaf107","title":"Multiple Horizontal Transfers of Immune Genes Between Distantly Related Teleost Fishes","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n               <jats:p>Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is less frequent in eukaryotes than in prokaryotes, yet can have strong functional implications and was proposed as a causal factor for major adaptations in several eukaryotic lineages. Most cases of eukaryote HGT reported to date are inter-domain transfers, and few studies have investigated eukaryote-to-eukaryote HGTs. Here, we performed a large-scale survey of HGT among 242 species of ray-finned fishes. We found multiple lines of evidence supporting 19 teleost-to-teleost HGT events that involve 17 different genes in 11 teleost fish orders. The genes involved in these transfers show lower synonymous divergence than expected under vertical transmission, their phylogeny is inconsistent with that of teleost fishes, and they occur at non-syntenic positions in donor and recipient lineages. The distribution of HGT events in the teleost tree is heterogenous, with 8 of the 19 transfers occurring between the same two orders (Osmeriformes and Clupeiformes). Though we favor a scenario involving multiple HGT events, future work should evaluate whether hybridization between species belonging to different teleost orders may generate HGT-like patterns. Besides the previously reported transfer of an antifreeze protein, most transferred genes play roles in immunity or are pore-forming proteins, suggesting that such genes may be more likely than others to confer a strong selective advantage to the recipient species. Overall, our work shows that teleost-to-teleost HGT has occurred on multiple occasions, and it will be worth further quantifying these transfers and evaluating their impact on teleost evolution as more genomes are sequenced.</jats:p>","journal":"Molecular Biology and Evolution","year":2025,"id":591453,"datarank":0.16479184330021646,"base_score":1.0986122886681096,"endowment":1.0986122886681096,"self_citation_contribution":0.16479184330021646,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.16479184330021646,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":2,"citer_count":1,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":null,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":false,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":null,"fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":1328769,"name":"Walter Salzburger","orcid":"0000-0002-9988-1674","position":1,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":107880,"name":"Florian Maumus","orcid":"0000-0001-7325-0527","position":2,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1012520,"name":"Clément Gilbert","orcid":"0000-0002-2131-7467","position":3,"is_corresponding":false},{"id":1467438,"name":"Maxime Policarpo","orcid":"0000-0001-8057-7800","position":0,"is_corresponding":false}],"reference_count":0,"raw_metadata":{"has_enrichment":true,"resolved":true,"title":"Multiple Horizontal Transfers of Immune Genes Between Distantly Related Teleost Fishes","abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title>\n               <jats:p>Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is less frequent in eukaryotes than in prokaryotes, yet can have strong functional implications and was proposed as a causal factor for major adaptations in several eukaryotic lineages. Most cases of eukaryote HGT reported to date are inter-domain transfers, and few studies have investigated eukaryote-to-eukaryote HGTs. Here, we performed a large-scale survey of HGT among 242 species of ray-finned fishes. We found multiple lines of evidence supporting 19 teleost-to-teleost HGT events that involve 17 different genes in 11 teleost fish orders. The genes involved in these transfers show lower synonymous divergence than expected under vertical transmission, their phylogeny is inconsistent with that of teleost fishes, and they occur at non-syntenic positions in donor and recipient lineages. The distribution of HGT events in the teleost tree is heterogenous, with 8 of the 19 transfers occurring between the same two orders (Osmeriformes and Clupeiformes). Though we favor a scenario involving multiple HGT events, future work should evaluate whether hybridization between species belonging to different teleost orders may generate HGT-like patterns. Besides the previously reported transfer of an antifreeze protein, most transferred genes play roles in immunity or are pore-forming proteins, suggesting that such genes may be more likely than others to confer a strong selective advantage to the recipient species. Overall, our work shows that teleost-to-teleost HGT has occurred on multiple occasions, and it will be worth further quantifying these transfers and evaluating their impact on teleost evolution as more genomes are sequenced.</jats:p>","is_dataset_classified":null,"base_score":0.6931471805599453,"endowment":0.6931471805599453,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"views":0,"has_version_chain":false,"is_dataset":false,"is_oa":false,"pmid":"40378191","pmcid":"PMC12107551","openalex_id":"https://openalex.org/W4410427958","authors":[],"funders":[{"funder_name":"Swiss National Science Foundation","grant_id":"189970","title":"Molecular evolution and ontogenetic development of dietary adaptations in vertebrates at the micro- and macro-evolutionary scale"},{"funder_name":"Swiss National Science Foundation","grant_id":"208002","title":"The evolutionary and ecological context of adaptive radiation in cichlid and other fishes from Lake Tanganyika"},{"funder_name":"Agence Nationale de la Recherche","grant_id":"ANR-24-CE02-1004 to 1001","title":null},{"funder_name":"French National Research Agency (ANR)","grant_id":"ANR-24-CE02-1004","title":"Assessing the contribution of viruses to horizontal DNA transfer"}],"total_grants":4,"fwci":0.4044,"citation_percentile":0.57194651,"influential_citations":0,"citation_trend":[{"year":2026,"count":1}],"oa_status":"gold","license":"cc-by-nc","oa_locations":[{"url":"https://academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/molbev/msaf107/63212495/msaf107.pdf","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://academic.oup.com/mbe/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/molbev/msaf107/63212495/msaf107.pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article-pdf/42/5/msaf107/63212495/msaf107.pdf","host_type":"publisher"},{"url":"https://doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf107","host_type":"journal"},{"url":"https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40378191","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://hal.science/hal-05373688","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-05247404","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/12107551","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://hal.science/hal-05373688/document","host_type":"repository"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC12107551","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC12107551?pdf=render","host_type":"Europe_PMC"},{"url":"http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/molbev/msaf107","host_type":""},{"url":"https://hdl.handle.net/21.11116/0000-0011-508B-6","host_type":""},{"url":"https://hal.science/hal-05373688v1/document","host_type":""},{"url":"https://hal.science/hal-05373688v1","host_type":""}],"fields_of_study":["Aquaculture disease management and microbiota","Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies","Invertebrate Immune Response Mechanisms","Animals","Gene Transfer, Horizontal","Fishes","Phylogeny","Evolution, Molecular"],"mesh_terms":["Animals","Fishes","Phylogeny","Evolution, Molecular","Gene Transfer, Horizontal"],"keywords":["Biology","Horizontal gene transfer","Eukaryote","Phylogenetics","Gene","Synteny","Evolutionary biology","Genome","Subfunctionalization","Genetics","Phylogenetic tree","Gene family","Immunity","Teleost Fishes","Horizontal Gene Transfers","Gene Transfer, Horizontal","Fishes","[SDV.GEN.GA] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Genetics/Animal genetics","Evolution, Molecular","[SDV.BID.SPT] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Systematics, Phylogenetics and taxonomy","[SDV.BID.EVO] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Biodiversity/Populations and Evolution [q-bio.PE]","[SDV.GEN.GPO] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Genetics/Populations and Evolution [q-bio.PE]","Animals","[SDV.IMM.II] Life Sciences [q-bio]/Immunology/Innate immunity","Discoveries","Phylogeny"],"sdg_mappings":[{"sdg_number":0,"sdg_label":"Life below water"}],"linked_datasets":[],"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"database_accessions":[{"name":"go"},{"name":"refseq"},{"name":"doi"}],"source":"live","citation_network_status":"fetched"},"created_at":"2026-07-25T16:42:24.954069Z","pmid":null,"pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}