Microbial co-habitation and lateral gene transfer: what transposases can tell us.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Determining the habitat range for various microbes is not a simple, straightforward matter, as habitats interlace, microbes move between habitats, and microbial communities change over time. In this study, we explore an approach using the history of lateral gene transfer recorded in microbial genomes to begin to answer two key questions: where have you been and who have you been with?

Results

All currently sequenced microbial genomes were surveyed to identify pairs of taxa that share a transposase that is likely to have been acquired through lateral gene transfer. A microbial interaction network including almost 800 organisms was then derived from these connections. Although the majority of the connections are between closely related organisms with the same or ove

SUBMITTER: Hooper SD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2688936 | biostudies-literature | 2009

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature