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Metabolic adaptations underlying genome flexibility in prokaryotes.

ABSTRACT: Even across genomes of the same species, prokaryotes exhibit remarkable flexibility in gene content. We do not know whether this flexible or "accessory" content is mostly neutral or adaptive, largely due to the lack of explicit analyses of accessory gene function. Here, across 96 diverse prokaryotic species, I show that a considerable fraction (~40%) of accessory genomes harbours beneficial metabolic functions. These functions take two forms: (1) they significantly expand the biosynthetic potential of individual strains, and (2) they help reduce strain-specific metabolic auxotrophies via intra-species metabolic exchanges. I find that the potential of both these functions increases with increasing genome flexibility. Together, these results are consistent with a significant adaptive role for prokaryotic pangenomes.

SUBMITTER: Goyal A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6224172 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Metabolic adaptations underlying genome flexibility in prokaryotes.

Goyal Akshit A

PLoS genetics 20181029 10

Even across genomes of the same species, prokaryotes exhibit remarkable flexibility in gene content. We do not know whether this flexible or "accessory" content is mostly neutral or adaptive, largely due to the lack of explicit analyses of accessory gene function. Here, across 96 diverse prokaryotic species, I show that a considerable fraction (~40%) of accessory genomes harbours beneficial metabolic functions. These functions take two forms: (1) they significantly expand the biosynthetic potent ...[more]

PMID: 30372443

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Dataset Information

Metabolic adaptations underlying genome flexibility in prokaryotes.

Publications

Metabolic adaptations underlying genome flexibility in prokaryotes.

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