The impact of horizontal gene transfer in shaping operons and protein interaction networks--direct evidence of preferential attachment.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Despite the prevalence of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in bacteria, to this date there were few studies on HGT in the context of gene expression, operons and protein-protein interactions. Using the recently available data set on the E. coli protein-protein interaction network, we sought to explore the impact of HGT on genome structure and protein networks.

Results

We classified the E. coli genes into three categories based on their evolutionary conservation: a set of 2158 Core genes that are shared by all E. coli strains, a set of 1044 Non-core genes that are strain-specific, and a set of 1053 genes that were putatively acquired by horizontal transfer. We observed a clear correlation between gene expressivity (measured by Codon Adaptation Index), evolutionary ra

SUBMITTER: Davids W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2259305 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature