Extensive repetitive DNA facilitates prokaryotic genome plasticity

Aras, R. A., Kang, J., Tschumi, A. I., Harasaki, Y., Blaser, M. J. (November 2003) Extensive repetitive DNA facilitates prokaryotic genome plasticity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100 (23). pp. 13579-13584. ISSN 0027-8424

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URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14593200
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1735481100

Abstract

Prokaryotic genomes are substantially diverse, even when from closely related species, with the resulting phenotypic diversity representing a repertoire of adaptations to specific constraints. Within the microbial population, genome content may not be fixed, as changing selective forces favor particular phenotypes; however, organisms well adapted to particular niches may have evolved mechanisms to facilitate such plasticity. The highly diverse Helicobacter pylori is a model for studying genome plasticity in the colonization of individual hosts. For H. pylori, neither point mutation, nor intergenic recombination requiring the presence of multiple colonizing strains, is sufficient to fully explain the observed diversity. Here we demonstrate that H. pylori has extensive, non-randomly distributed repetitive chromosomal sequences, and that recombination between identical repeats contributes to the variation within individual hosts. That H. pylori is representative of prokaryotes, especially those with smaller (<2 megabases) genomes, that have similarly extensive direct repeats, suggests that recombination between such direct DNA repeats is a widely conserved mechanism to promote genome diversification.

Item Type: Paper
Uncontrolled Keywords: HELICOBACTER-PYLORI STRAINS RESTRICTION-MODIFICATION SYSTEM MYCOBACTERIUM-TUBERCULOSIS BACTERIAL GENOMES ESCHERICHIA-COLI HUMAN HOST GENE DIVERSITY REPEATS PHENOTYPE
Subjects: bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > DNA, RNA structure, function, modification
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > genomes
CSHL Authors:
Depositing User: Matt Covey
Date: November 2003
Date Deposited: 28 Mar 2013 13:30
Last Modified: 10 Sep 2019 18:34
PMCID: PMC263856
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/28002

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