Phenotypic differentiation of Streptococcus pyogenes populations is induced by recombination-driven gene-specific sweeps.

ABSTRACT: Genomic recombination plays an important role in driving adaptive evolution and population differentiation in bacteria. However, controversy exists as to the effects of recombination on population diversity and differentiation, i.e., recombination is frequent enough to sweep through the population at selected gene loci (gene-specific sweeps), or the recombination rate is low without interfering genome-wide selective sweeps. Observations supporting either view are sparse. Pathogenic bacteria causing infectious diseases are promising candidates to provide observations of recombination. However, phenotype-associated differentiations are usually vague among them due to diverse disease manifestations. Here we report a population genomic study of the group A Streptococcus pyogenes (GAS), a human

SUBMITTER: Bao YJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5099688 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature