SOCfinder: a genomic tool for identifying social genes in bacteria.

ABSTRACT: Bacteria cooperate by working collaboratively to defend their colonies, share nutrients, and resist antibiotics. Nevertheless, our understanding of these remarkable behaviours primarily comes from studying a few well-characterized species. Consequently, there is a significant gap in our understanding of microbial social traits, particularly in natural environments. To address this gap, we can use bioinformatic tools to identify genes that control cooperative or otherwise social traits. Existing tools address this challenge through two approaches. One approach is to identify genes that encode extracellular proteins, which can provide benefits to neighbouring cells. An alternative approach is to predict gene function using annotation tools. However, these tools have several limitations. Not

SUBMITTER: Belcher LJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10763506 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature