Ancestral Genome Estimation Reveals the History of Ecological Diversification in Agrobacterium.

ABSTRACT: Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is considered as a major source of innovation in bacteria, and as such is expected to drive adaptation to new ecological niches. However, among the many genes acquired through HGT along the diversification history of genomes, only a fraction may have actively contributed to sustained ecological adaptation. We used a phylogenetic approach accounting for the transfer of genes (or groups of genes) to estimate the history of genomes in Agrobacterium biovar 1, a diverse group of soil and plant-dwelling bacterial species. We identified clade-specific blocks of cotransferred genes encoding coherent biochemical pathways that may have contributed to the evolutionary success of key Agrobacterium clades. This pattern of gene coevolution rejects a neutral model of transf

SUBMITTER: Lassalle F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5739047 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature