Evolutionary genomics of a temperate bacteriophage in an obligate intracellular bacteria (Wolbachia).

ABSTRACT: Genome evolution of bacteria is usually influenced by ecology, such that bacteria with a free-living stage have large genomes and high rates of horizontal gene transfer, while obligate intracellular bacteria have small genomes with typically low amounts of gene exchange. However, recent studies indicate that obligate intracellular species that host-switch frequently harbor agents of horizontal transfer such as mobile elements. For example, the temperate double-stranded DNA bacteriophage WO in Wolbachia persistently transfers between bacterial coinfections in the same host. Here we show that despite the phage's rampant mobility between coinfections, the prophage's genome displays features of constraint related to its intracellular niche. First, there is always at least one intact prophage W

SUBMITTER: Kent BN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3173496 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature