Gene socialization: gene order, GC content and gene silencing in Salmonella.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Genes of conserved order in bacterial genomes tend to evolve slower than genes whose order is not conserved. In addition, genes with a GC content lower than the GC content of the resident genome are known to be selectively silenced by the histone-like nucleoid structuring protein (H-NS) in Salmonella.

Results

In this study, we use a comparative genomics approach to demonstrate that in Salmonella, genes whose order is not conserved (or genes without homologs) in closely related bacteria possess a significantly lower average GC content in comparison to genes that preserve their relative position in the genome. Moreover, these genes are more frequently targeted by H-NS than genes that have conserved their genomic neighborhood. We also observed that duplicated genes t

SUBMITTER: Papanikolaou N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2801525 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature