Phylogenetic Network Analysis Revealed the Occurrence of Horizontal Gene Transfer of 16S rRNA in the Genus Enterobacter.

ABSTRACT: Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is a ubiquitous genetic event in bacterial evolution, but it seldom occurs for genes involved in highly complex supramolecules (or biosystems), which consist of many gene products. The ribosome is one such supramolecule, but several bacteria harbor dissimilar and/or chimeric 16S rRNAs in their genomes, suggesting the occurrence of HGT of this gene. However, we know little about whether the genes actually experience HGT and, if so, the frequency of such a transfer. This is primarily because the methods currently employed for phylogenetic analysis (e.g., neighbor-joining, maximum likelihood, and maximum parsimony) of 16S rRNA genes assume point mutation-driven tree-shape evolution as an evolutionary model, which is intrinsically inappropriate to decipher the ev

SUBMITTER: Sato M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5688380 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature