Evolution of the Natural Transformation Protein, ComEC, in Bacteria.

ABSTRACT: Natural transformation enables the incorporation of exogenous DNA into host genomes and plays a fundamental role in the evolution of microbial populations. At the center of the natural transformation machinery, the ComEC protein mediates DNA import and serves potential functions in DNA recognition and single strand degradation. Despite its importance, the evolution of ComEC is not fully understood. Here, we aim to fill this knowledge gap by surveying putative ComEC proteins across 5,574 bacteria that span diverse phyla. We first derived the presence of a universal, core Competence domain through the analysis of ComEC proteins from known naturally competent species. Then, we followed this observation to identify Competence domain containing proteins (CDCPs) from all bacteria a

SUBMITTER: Pimentel ZT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6299819 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature