Challenges Faced by Highly Polyploid Bacteria with Limits on DNA Inheritance.

ABSTRACT: Most studies of bacterial reproduction have centered on organisms that undergo binary fission. In these models, complete chromosome copies are segregated with great fidelity into two equivalent offspring cells. All genetic material is passed on to offspring, including new mutations and horizontally acquired sequences. However, some bacterial lineages employ diverse reproductive patterns that require management and segregation of more than two chromosome copies. Epulopiscium spp., and their close relatives within the Firmicutes phylum, are intestinal symbionts of surgeonfish (family Acanthuridae). Each of these giant (up to 0.6 mm long), cigar-shaped bacteria contains tens of thousands of chromosome copies. Epulopiscium spp. do not use binary fission but instead produce multiple intracellul

SUBMITTER: Angert ER 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8245194 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature