Repeated horizontal gene transfers triggered parallel evolution of magnetotaxis in two evolutionary divergent lineages of magnetotactic bacteria.

ABSTRACT: Under the same selection pressures, two genetically divergent populations may evolve in parallel toward the same adaptive solutions. Here, we hypothesized that magnetotaxis (i.e., magnetically guided chemotaxis) represents a key adaptation to micro-oxic habitats in aquatic sediments and that its parallel evolution homogenized the phenotypes of two evolutionary divergent clusters of freshwater spirilla. All magnetotactic bacteria affiliated to the Magnetospirillum genus (Alphaproteobacteria class) biomineralize the same magnetic particle chains and share highly similar physiological and ultrastructural features. We looked for the processes that could have contributed at shaping such an evolutionary pattern by reconciling species and gene trees using newly sequenced genomes of Magnetospirill

SUBMITTER: Monteil CL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7305187 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature