Metagenomic methylation patterns resolve bacterial genomes of unusual size and structural complexity.

ABSTRACT: The plasticity of bacterial and archaeal genomes makes examining their ecological and evolutionary dynamics both exciting and challenging. The same mechanisms that enable rapid genomic change and adaptation confound current approaches for recovering complete genomes from metagenomes. Here, we use strain-specific patterns of DNA methylation to resolve complex bacterial genomes from long-read metagenomic data of a marine microbial consortium, the "pink berries" of the Sippewissett Marsh (USA). Unique combinations of restriction-modification (RM) systems encoded by the bacteria produced distinctive methylation profiles that were used to accurately bin and classify metagenomic sequences. Using this approach, we finished the largest and most complex circularized bacterial genome ever recovered

SUBMITTER: Wilbanks EG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9296519 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature