Origin, evolution, and maintenance of gene-strand bias in bacteria.

ABSTRACT: Gene-strand bias is a characteristic feature of bacterial genome organization wherein genes are preferentially encoded on the leading strand of replication, promoting co-orientation of replication and transcription. This co-orientation bias has evolved to protect gene essentiality, expression, and genomic stability from the harmful effects of head-on replication-transcription collisions. However, the origin, variation, and maintenance of gene-strand bias remain elusive. Here, we reveal that the frequency of inversions that alter gene orientation exhibits large variation across bacterial populations and negatively correlates with gene-strand bias. The density, distance, and distribution of inverted repeats show a similar negative relationship with gene-strand bias explaining the heterogenei

SUBMITTER: Atre M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11040001 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature