Relationship between operon preference and functional properties of persistent genes in bacterial genomes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Genes in bacteria may be organised into operons, leading to strict co-expression of the genes that participate in the same operon. However, comparisons between different bacterial genomes have shown that much of the operon structure is dynamic on an evolutionary time scale. This indicates that there are opposing effects influencing the tendency for operon formation, and these effects may be reflected in properties like evolutionary rate, complex formation, metabolic pathways and gene fusion.

Results

We have used multi-species protein-protein comparisons to generate a high-quality set of genes that are persistent in bacterial genomes (i.e. they have close to universal distribution). We have analysed these genes with respect to operon participation and important fun

SUBMITTER: Bratlie MS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2837039 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature