Supra-operonic clusters of functionally related genes (SOCs) are a source of horizontal gene co-transfers.

ABSTRACT: Adaptation of bacteria occurs predominantly via horizontal gene transfer (HGT). While it is widely recognized that horizontal acquisitions frequently encompass multiple genes, it is unclear what the size distribution of successfully transferred DNA segments looks like and what evolutionary forces shape this distribution. Here, we identified 1790 gene family pairs that were consistently co-gained on the same branches across a phylogeny of 53 E. coli strains. We estimated a lower limit of their genomic distances at the time they were transferred to their host genomes; this distribution shows a sharp upper bound at 30 kb. The same gene-pairs can have larger distances (up to 70 kb) in other genomes. These more distant pairs likely represent recent acquisitions via transduction that involve the

SUBMITTER: Pang TY 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5220362 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature