3.3 Candidate gene analysis
Due to the conservative filtering strategy (SCO set, length >300 and missing values <10%), only 72 out of 166 candidate immune genes present in the G. calmariensis genome remained in our MK analysis, corresponding to 14 recognition genes, 22 signalling genes, 5 effectors, 18 protease coding genes, 26 haematopoiesis genes, 15 melanisation genes and 5 wound healing genes (Table S1). Eight of these immune genes were identified to be under positive selection in G. pusilla , including important genes involved in parasitoid recognition (santa-maria andCorin ), Toll and JNK pathways (grass and Tak1 ), a protease with serine-type carboxypeptidase activity and genes involved in lamellocyte differentiation (Raf , cher and zfh1 ) (Table 2). In contrast, only one candidate immune gene (Cyp9f2 ) was positively selected in G. calmariensis . In G. tenella , four immune genes were found to be under positive selection; two recognition genes (Corin and PGRP-LE ) and two genes with important roles in haematopoiesis through regulation of lamellocyte differentiation (cher and Cyt-b5 ) (Table 2).