Gene copy number variation and its significance in cyanobacterial phylogeny.

ABSTRACT:

Background

In eukaryotes, variation in gene copy numbers is often associated with deleterious effects, but may also have positive effects. For prokaryotes, studies on gene copy number variation are rare. Previous studies have suggested that high numbers of rRNA gene copies can be advantageous in environments with changing resource availability, but further association of gene copies and phenotypic traits are not documented. We used one of the morphologically most diverse prokaryotic phyla to test whether numbers of gene copies are associated with levels of cell differentiation.

Results

We implemented a search algorithm that identified 44 genes with highly conserved copies across 22 fully sequenced cyanobacterial taxa. For two very basal cyanobacterial species, Gloeobacter vi

SUBMITTER: Schirrmeister BE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3552681 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature