Vertical Inheritance Facilitates Interspecies Diversification in Biosynthetic Gene Clusters and Specialized Metabolites.

ABSTRACT: While specialized metabolites are thought to mediate ecological interactions, the evolutionary processes driving chemical diversification, particularly among closely related lineages, remain poorly understood. Here, we examine the evolutionary dynamics governing the distribution of natural product biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) among 118 strains representing all nine currently named species of the marine actinobacterial genus Salinispora. While much attention has been given to the role of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in structuring BGC distributions, we find that vertical descent facilitates interspecies BGC diversification over evolutionary timescales. Moreover, we identified a distinct phylogenetic signal among Salinispora species at both the BGC and metabolite level,

SUBMITTER: Chase AB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8609351 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature