A rare, evolutionarily conserved venom protein benefits endoparasitism across parasitoids

Although many venom proteins and other parasitic effectors have been identified in various specific systems of parasitoids, key elements that contribute to parasitic success across a broad range of taxa remain largely unexplored. Here, we focus on Leptopilina and conduct a large-scale, multi-omics study to explore common venom proteins for these drosophilid parasitoids. We find that this genus has undergone extensive chromosome rearrangements and a rapid turnover of venom gene repertoires between species. Interestingly, we identified a lineage-specific venom lipase, Leptopilina-specific venom lipase (LVL), as a rare venom protein that is subject to evolutionary constraint and recruited by all Leptopilina species. Functional genetics studies on LVL reveal its critical role in hydrolyzing host lipids under acidic conditions, which in turn ensures the nutrition supply for the embryonic development of parasitoids. Our study provides a paradigm to characterize adaptive effectors across diverse insects and highlights the importance of host lipid utilization in the parasitization of parasitoids.

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Publication Details

Journal
Cell Genomics
Published
2025-06-19
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xgen.2025.100920
Citations
7
Primary Topic
Insect symbiosis and bacterial influences
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
11.71

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article

A rare, evolutionarily conserved venom protein benefits endoparasitism across parasitoids

Qichao Zhang, Yueqi Lu, Yifeng Sheng, Zhi Dong et al.
7 citations
Cell Genomics
Insect symbiosis and bacterial influences
11.71
article

A rare, evolutionarily conserved venom protein benefits endoparasitism across parasitoids

Qichao Zhang, Yueqi Lu, Yifeng Sheng, Zhi Dong, Yixiang Zhang, Wenqi Shi, Guiyun Li, Jiani Chen, Ting Feng, Gangqi Fang, Lan Pang, Junwei Zhang, Chen Xuexin, Jianhua Huang, Shuai Zhan
article en
7 citations

Abstract

Although many venom proteins and other parasitic effectors have been identified in various specific systems of parasitoids, key elements that contribute to parasitic success across a broad range of taxa remain largely unexplored. Here, we focus on Leptopilina and conduct a large-scale, multi-omics study to explore common venom proteins for these drosophilid parasitoids. We find that this genus has undergone extensive chromosome rearrangements and a rapid turnover of venom gene repertoires between species. Interestingly, we identified a lineage-specific venom lipase, Leptopilina-specific venom lipase (LVL), as a rare venom protein that is subject to evolutionary constraint and recruited by all Leptopilina species. Functional genetics studies on LVL reveal its critical role in hydrolyzing host lipids under acidic conditions, which in turn ensures the nutrition supply for the embryonic development of parasitoids. Our study provides a paradigm to characterize adaptive effectors across diverse insects and highlights the importance of host lipid utilization in the parasitization of parasitoids.

Cell GenomicsVol. 5(8)
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Ministry of Agriculture (LV), ZheJiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CN), Center for Excellence in Molecular Plant Sciences (CN), Zhejiang University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province
Zero hunger
Openalex Percentile: Top 1%
Insect symbiosis and bacterial influences
11.71
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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