Main menu

Horizontal transmission and recombination maintain forever young bacterial symbiont genomes


When bacterial symbionts become associated with their hosts, their genomes are thought to decay inexorably towards an organelle-like fate due to decreased recombination and inefficient selection. Despite extensive theoretical treatment, no empirical study thus far has connected these underlying population genetic processes with long-term evolutionary outcomes. By sampling marine endosymbionts that range from primarily vertical to strictly horizontal transmission, we tested this canonical theory. We found that transmission mode strongly predicts recombination rates, and that exceedingly low recombination rates are associated with genome degradation in the marine symbionts with nearly strict vertical transmission. Nonetheless, even the most degraded marine endosymbiont genomes are occasionally horizontally transmitted and are much larger than their terrestrial insect symbiont counterparts. Therefore, horizontal transmission and recombination enable intermediate symbiont genome sizes that maintain substantial functional genetic variation.

Authors: Shelbi L Russell, Evan Pepper, Jesper Svedberg, Ashley Byrne, Jennie Ruelas Castillo, Christopher Vollmers, Roxanne Beinart, Russ Corbett-Detig

入门指南

购买 MinION 启动包 Nanopore 商城 测序服务提供商 全球代理商

纳米孔技术

订阅 Nanopore 更新 资源库及发表刊物 什么是 Nanopore 社区

关于 Oxford Nanopore

新闻 公司历程 可持续发展 领导团队 媒体资源和联系方式 投资者 合作者 在 Oxford Nanopore 工作 职位空缺 商业信息 BSI 27001 accreditationBSI 90001 accreditationBSI mark of trust
Chinese flag