Recombination produces coherent bacterial species clusters in both core and accessory genomes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Population samples show bacterial genomes can be divided into a core of ubiquitous genes and accessory genes that are present in a fraction of isolates. The ecological significance of this variation in gene content remains unclear. However, microbiologists agree that a bacterial species should be 'genomically coherent', even though there is no consensus on how this should be determined.

Results

We use a parsimonious model combining diversification in both the core and accessory genome, including mutation, homologous recombination (HR) and horizontal gene transfer (HGT) introducing new loci, to produce a population of interacting clusters of strains with varying genome content. New loci introduced by HGT may then be transferred on by HR. The model fits well to a sy

SUBMITTER: Marttinen P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5320679 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature