Retroelement-guided protein diversification abounds in vast lineages of Bacteria and Archaea.

ABSTRACT: Major radiations of enigmatic Bacteria and Archaea with large inventories of uncharacterized proteins are a striking feature of the Tree of Life^1-5. The processes that led to functional diversity in these lineages, which may contribute to a host-dependent lifestyle, are poorly understood. Here, we show that diversity-generating retroelements (DGRs), which guide site-specific protein hypervariability^6-8, are prominent features of genomically reduced organisms from the bacterial candidate phyla radiation (CPR) and as yet uncultivated phyla belonging to the DPANN (Diapherotrites, Parvarchaeota, Aenigmarchaeota, Nanoarchaeota and Nanohaloarchaea) archaeal superphylum. From reconstructed genomes we have defined monophyletic bacterial and archaeal DGR lineages that expand t

SUBMITTER: Paul BG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5436926 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature