A barrier to homologous recombination between sympatric strains of the cooperative soil bacterium Myxococcus xanthus.

ABSTRACT: The bacterium Myxococcus xanthus glides through soil in search of prey microbes, but when food sources run out, cells cooperatively construct and sporulate within multicellular fruiting bodies. M. xanthus strains isolated from a 16 × 16-cm-scale patch of soil were previously shown to have diversified into many distinct compatibility types that are distinguished by the failure of swarming colonies to merge upon encounter. We sequenced the genomes of 22 isolates from this population belonging to the two most frequently occurring multilocus sequence type (MLST) clades to trace patterns of incipient genomic divergence, specifically related to social divergence. Although homologous recombination occurs frequently within the two MLST clades, we find an almost complete absence of recombination ev

SUBMITTER: Wielgoss S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5030687 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature