PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Eric Dexter
AU  - Peter D. Fields
AU  - Dieter Ebert
TI  - Uncovering the genomic basis of infection through co-genomic sequencing of hosts and parasites
AID  - 10.1101/2022.12.05.519109
DP  - 2022 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2022.12.05.519109
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/12/08/2022.12.05.519109.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/12/08/2022.12.05.519109.full
AB  - Understanding the genomic basis of infectious disease is fundamental objective in coevolutionary theory with relevance to healthcare, agriculture, and epidemiology. Models of host-parasite coevolution often assume that infection requires specific combinations of host and parasite genotypes. Coevolving host and parasite loci are therefor expected to show associations that reflects an underlying infection/resistance allele matrix, yet little evidence for such genome-to-genome interactions has been observed among natural populations. We conducted a study to search for this genomic signature across 258 linked host (Daphnia magna) and parasite (Pasteuria ramosa) genomes. Our results show a clear signal of genomic association between multiple epistatically-interacting loci in the host genome, and a family of genes encoding for collagen-like protein in the parasite genome. These findings are supported by laboratory-based infection trials, which show strong correspondence between phenotype and genotype at the identified loci. Our study provides clear genomic evidence of antagonistic coevolution among wild populations.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.