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A highly conserved and globally prevalent cryptic plasmid is among the most numerous mobile genetic elements in the human gut.

ABSTRACT: Plasmids are extrachromosomal genetic elements that often encode fitness enhancing features. However, many bacteria carry 'cryptic' plasmids that do not confer clear beneficial functions. We identified one such cryptic plasmid, pBI143, which is ubiquitous across industrialized gut microbiomes, and is 14 times as numerous as crAssphage, currently established as the most abundant genetic element in the human gut. The majority of mutations in pBI143 accumulate in specific positions across thousands of metagenomes, indicating strong purifying selection. pBI143 is monoclonal in most individuals, likely due to the priority effect of the version first acquired, often from one's mother. pBI143 can transfer between Bacteroidales and although it does not appear to impact bacterial host fitness in vivo, can transiently acquire additional genetic content. We identified important practical applications of pBI143, including its use in identifying human fecal contamination and its potential as an inexpensive alternative for detecting human colonic inflammatory states.

SUBMITTER: Fogarty EC

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10055365 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A highly conserved and globally prevalent cryptic plasmid is among the most numerous mobile genetic elements in the human gut.

Fogarty Emily C EC Schechter Matthew S MS Lolans Karen K Sheahan Madeline L ML Veseli Iva I Moore Ryan R Kiefl Evan E Moody Thomas T Rice Phoebe A PA Yu Michael K MK Mimee Mark M Chang Eugene B EB Mclellan Sandra L SL Willis Amy D AD Comstock Laurie E LE Eren A Murat AM

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology 20230325

Plasmids are extrachromosomal genetic elements that often encode fitness enhancing features. However, many bacteria carry 'cryptic' plasmids that do not confer clear beneficial functions. We identified one such cryptic plasmid, pBI143, which is ubiquitous across industrialized gut microbiomes, and is 14 times as numerous as crAssphage, currently established as the most abundant genetic element in the human gut. The majority of mutations in pBI143 accumulate in specific positions across thousands ...[more]

PMID: 36993556

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Project description:With over 20 parapatric races differing in their warningly colored wing patterns, the butterfly Heliconius erato provides a fascinating example of an adaptive radiation. Together with matching races of its co-mimic Heliconius melpomene, H. erato also represents a textbook case of Müllerian mimicry, a phenomenon where common warning signals are shared amongst noxious organisms. It is of great interest to identify the specific genes that control the mimetic wing patterns of H. erato and H. melpomene. To this end we have undertaken comparative mapping and targeted genomic sequencing in both species. This paper reports on a comparative analysis of genomic sequences linked to color pattern mimicry genes in Heliconius.Scoring AFLP polymorphisms in H. erato broods allowed us to survey loci at approximately 362 kb intervals across the genome. With this strategy we were able to identify markers tightly linked to two color pattern genes: D and Cr, which were then used to screen H. erato BAC libraries in order to identify clones for sequencing. Gene density across 600 kb of BAC sequences appeared relatively low, although the number of predicted open reading frames was typical for an insect. We focused analyses on the D- and Cr-linked H. erato BAC sequences and on the Yb-linked H. melpomene BAC sequence. A comparative analysis between homologous regions of H. erato (Cr-linked BAC) and H. melpomene (Yb-linked BAC) revealed high levels of sequence conservation and microsynteny between the two species. We found that repeated elements constitute 26% and 20% of BAC sequences from H. erato and H. melpomene respectively. The majority of these repetitive sequences appear to be novel, as they showed no significant similarity to any other available insect sequences. We also observed signs of fine scale conservation of gene order between Heliconius and the moth Bombyx mori, suggesting that lepidopteran genome architecture may be conserved over very long evolutionary time scales.Here we have demonstrated the tractability of progressing from a genetic linkage map to genomic sequence data in Heliconius butterflies. We have also shown that fine-scale gene order is highly conserved between distantly related Heliconius species, and also between Heliconius and B. mori. Together, these findings suggest that genome structure in macrolepidoptera might be very conserved, and show that mapping and positional cloning efforts in different lepidopteran species can be reciprocally informative.

Dataset Information

A highly conserved and globally prevalent cryptic plasmid is among the most numerous mobile genetic elements in the human gut.

Publications

A highly conserved and globally prevalent cryptic plasmid is among the most numerous mobile genetic elements in the human gut.

Similar Datasets

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