Genomic divergence across the tree of life.

ABSTRACT: Nucleotide sequence data are being harnessed to identify species, even in cases in which organisms themselves are neither in hand nor witnessed. But how genome-wide sequence divergence maps to species status is far from clear. While gene sequence divergence is commonly used to delineate bacterial species, its correspondence to established species boundaries has yet to be explored across eukaryotic taxa. Because the processes underlying gene flow differ fundamentally between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, these domains are likely to differ in the relationship between reproductive isolation and genome-wide sequence divergence. In prokaryotes, homologous recombination, the basis of gene flow, depends directly on the degree of genomic sequence divergence, whereas in sexually reproducing eukaryote

SUBMITTER: Hart R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11912424 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature