Evolutionary expansion of nematode-specific glycine-rich secreted peptides

•Highly abundant GRSPs in the two nematodes.•About 90% were clustered on their genomes of the two nematodes.•The conserved synteny blocks of GRSPs clusters between the two nematodes.•The transcriptional co-expression of C. elegans GRSPs clusters after infections.•Purifying selections had acted upon family members of the two nematode GRSPs.

Genome-wide comparisons across 10 species from algae Guillardia theta to mammal human indicated that Caenorhabditis elegans and Caenorhabditis briggsae were highly enriched for glycine-rich secreted peptides (GRSPs) (110 GRSPs in C. elegans and 93 in C. briggsae) in this study. Chromosomal mapping showed that most GRSPs were clustered on the two nematode genomes [103 (93.64%) in C. elegans and 82 (88.17%) in C. briggsae], which could be divided into 18 cluster units in C. elegans and 13 in C. briggsae, respectively. Except for four C. elegans GRSPs clusters without matching clusters in C. briggsae, all other GRSPs clusters had paired synteny block between the two nematode genomes. Analyzing transcriptome datasets quantified by microarray indicated extensive genome-wide co-expression of GRSPs clusters after C. elegans infections. Highly homologous coding sequences and conserved exon–intron structures indicated that GRSPs tight clusters were likely derived from local DNA duplications. Phylogenetic conservation of synteny blocks between their genomes, co-expression of GRSPs clusters after C. elegans infections, and strong purifying selections of coding sequences may indicate evolutionary constraints acting on C. elegans to guarantee that C. elegans could mount rapid systematic responses to infections by co-expression, co-regulation, and co-functionality of GRSPs clusters.

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