Clément GILBERT Horizontal transfer of transposable elements in animals
invité par Marie-Anne FÉLIX - Section Écologie et Biologie de l’Évolution
12h
Le séminaire de Clément GILBERT (Université Paris-Saclay) aura lieu dans la salle Favard, IBENS 46 rue d’Ulm 75005 Paris
Horizontal transfer of genetic material (HT) is the passage of DNA between organisms through means other than reproduction. HT is widespread in prokaryotes and is also being increasingly reported in unicellular eukaryotes. In multicellular eukaryotes, most known cases of HT involve transposable elements (TEs), which are pieces of DNA capable of moving from one locus to another in a given genome, often duplicating themselves in the process. Our recent work deals with determining the biotic and abiotic factors that may foster HT of TEs, as well as with deciphering the mechanisms and vectors involved in these transfers between insect species. Here I will summarize several studies in which we quantify HT of TEs among dozens of animal genomes and I will show that two types of free circulating viruses (baculoviruses and iridoviruses) as well as domesticated viruses of parasitoid wasps (polydnaviruses) show strong potential for acting as vectors of HT among insects.