Horizontal gene transfer of the Mer operon is associated with large effects on the transcriptome and increased tolerance to mercury in nitrogen-fixing bacteria.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Mercury (Hg) is highly toxic and has the potential to cause severe health problems for humans and foraging animals when transported into edible plant parts. Soil rhizobia that form symbiosis with legumes may possess mechanisms to prevent heavy metal translocation from roots to shoots in plants by exporting metals from nodules or compartmentalizing metal ions inside nodules. Horizontal gene transfer has potential to confer immediate de novo adaptations to stress. We used comparative genomics of high quality de novo assemblies to identify structural differences in the genomes of nitrogen-fixing rhizobia that were isolated from a mercury (Hg) mine site that show high variation in their tolerance to Hg.

Results

Our analyses identified multiple structurally conserved m

SUBMITTER: Bhat A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11227200 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature