Using Mahalanobis distance to compare genomic signatures between bacterial plasmids and chromosomes.

ABSTRACT: Plasmids are ubiquitous mobile elements that serve as a pool of many host beneficial traits such as antibiotic resistance in bacterial communities. To understand the importance of plasmids in horizontal gene transfer, we need to gain insight into the 'evolutionary history' of these plasmids, i.e. the range of hosts in which they have evolved. Since extensive data support the proposal that foreign DNA acquires the host's nucleotide composition during long-term residence, comparison of nucleotide composition of plasmids and chromosomes could shed light on a plasmid's evolutionary history. The average absolute dinucleotide relative abundance difference, termed delta-distance, has been commonly used to measure differences in dinucleotide composition, or 'genomic signature', between bacterial c

SUBMITTER: Suzuki H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2602791 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature