Host ecology regulates interspecies recombination in bacteria of the genus <i>Campylobacter</i>.

ABSTRACT: Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) can allow traits that have evolved in one bacterial species to transfer to another. This has potential to rapidly promote new adaptive trajectories such as zoonotic transfer or antimicrobial resistance. However, for this to occur requires gaps to align in barriers to recombination within a given time frame. Chief among these barriers is the physical separation of species with distinct ecologies in separate niches. Within the genus Campylobacter, there are species with divergent ecologies, from rarely isolated single-host specialists to multihost generalist species that are among the most common global causes of human bacterial gastroenteritis. Here, by characterizing these contrasting ecologies, we can quantify HGT among sympatric and allopatric specie

SUBMITTER: Mourkas E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8912921 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature