A quantitative account of genomic island acquisitions in prokaryotes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Microbial genomes do not merely evolve through the slow accumulation of mutations, but also, and often more dramatically, by taking up new DNA in a process called horizontal gene transfer. These innovation leaps in the acquisition of new traits can take place via the introgression of single genes, but also through the acquisition of large gene clusters, which are termed Genomic Islands. Since only a small proportion of all the DNA diversity has been sequenced, it can be hard to find the appropriate donors for acquired genes via sequence alignments from databases. In contrast, relative oligonucleotide frequencies represent a remarkably stable genomic signature in prokaryotes, which facilitates compositional comparisons as an alignment-free alternative for phylogenetic rel

SUBMITTER: Roos TE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3176501 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature