Selection effects on the positioning of genes and gene structures from the interplay of replication and transcription in bacterial genomes.

ABSTRACT: Bacterial chromosomes are partly shaped by the functional requirements for efficient replication, which lead to strand bias as commonly characterized by the excess of guanines over cytosines in the leading strand. Gene structures are also highly organized within bacterial genomes as a result of such functional constraints, displaying characteristic positioning and structuring along the genome. Here we analyze the gene structures in completely sequenced bacterial chromosomes to observe the positional constraints on gene orientation, length, and codon usage with regard to the positions of replication origin and terminus. Selection on these gene features is different in regions surrounding the terminus of replication from the rest of the genome, but the selection could be either positive or n

SUBMITTER: Arakawa K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2684129 | biostudies-literature | 2007 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature