Exploring the evolutionary dynamics of plasmids: the <it>Acinetobacter </it>pan-plasmidome
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Prokaryotic plasmids have a dual importance in the microbial world: first they have a great impact on the metabolic functions of the host cell, providing additional traits that can be accumulated in the cell without altering the gene...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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BMC
2010-02-01
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| Series: | BMC Evolutionary Biology |
| Online Access: | http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/10/59 |
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| author | Vaneechoutte Mario Mengoni Alessio Papaleo Maria Brilli Matteo Bacci Giovanni Fondi Marco Dijkshoorn Lenie Fani Renato |
| author_facet | Vaneechoutte Mario Mengoni Alessio Papaleo Maria Brilli Matteo Bacci Giovanni Fondi Marco Dijkshoorn Lenie Fani Renato |
| author_sort | Vaneechoutte Mario |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Prokaryotic plasmids have a dual importance in the microbial world: first they have a great impact on the metabolic functions of the host cell, providing additional traits that can be accumulated in the cell without altering the gene content of the bacterial chromosome. Additionally and/or alternatively, from a genome perspective, plasmids can provide a basis for genomic rearrangements <it>via </it>homologous recombination and so they can facilitate the loss or acquisition of genes during these events, which eventually may lead to horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Given their importance for conferring adaptive traits to the host organisms, the interest in plasmid sequencing is growing and now many complete plasmid sequences are available online.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>By using the newly developed Blast2Network bioinformatic tool, a comparative analysis was performed on the plasmid and chromosome sequence data available for bacteria belonging to the genus <it>Acinetobacter</it>, an ubiquitous and clinically important group of γ-proteobacteria. Data obtained showed that, although most of the plasmids lack mobilization and transfer functions, they have probably a long history of rearrangements with other plasmids and with chromosomes. Indeed, traces of transfers between different species can be disclosed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We show that, by combining plasmid and chromosome similarity, identity based, network analysis, an evolutionary scenario can be described even for highly mobile genetic elements that lack extensively shared genes. In particular we found that transposases and selective pressure for mercury resistance seem to have played a pivotal role in plasmid evolution in <it>Acinetobacter </it>genomes sequenced so far.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-11T19:20:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e9b802447d914abeb65a70790abb3ced |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1471-2148 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-11T19:20:32Z |
| publishDate | 2010-02-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Evolutionary Biology |
| spelling | doaj.art-e9b802447d914abeb65a70790abb3ced2022-12-22T04:07:19ZengBMCBMC Evolutionary Biology1471-21482010-02-011015910.1186/1471-2148-10-59Exploring the evolutionary dynamics of plasmids: the <it>Acinetobacter </it>pan-plasmidomeVaneechoutte MarioMengoni AlessioPapaleo MariaBrilli MatteoBacci GiovanniFondi MarcoDijkshoorn LenieFani Renato<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Prokaryotic plasmids have a dual importance in the microbial world: first they have a great impact on the metabolic functions of the host cell, providing additional traits that can be accumulated in the cell without altering the gene content of the bacterial chromosome. Additionally and/or alternatively, from a genome perspective, plasmids can provide a basis for genomic rearrangements <it>via </it>homologous recombination and so they can facilitate the loss or acquisition of genes during these events, which eventually may lead to horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Given their importance for conferring adaptive traits to the host organisms, the interest in plasmid sequencing is growing and now many complete plasmid sequences are available online.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>By using the newly developed Blast2Network bioinformatic tool, a comparative analysis was performed on the plasmid and chromosome sequence data available for bacteria belonging to the genus <it>Acinetobacter</it>, an ubiquitous and clinically important group of γ-proteobacteria. Data obtained showed that, although most of the plasmids lack mobilization and transfer functions, they have probably a long history of rearrangements with other plasmids and with chromosomes. Indeed, traces of transfers between different species can be disclosed.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We show that, by combining plasmid and chromosome similarity, identity based, network analysis, an evolutionary scenario can be described even for highly mobile genetic elements that lack extensively shared genes. In particular we found that transposases and selective pressure for mercury resistance seem to have played a pivotal role in plasmid evolution in <it>Acinetobacter </it>genomes sequenced so far.</p>http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/10/59 |
| spellingShingle | Vaneechoutte Mario Mengoni Alessio Papaleo Maria Brilli Matteo Bacci Giovanni Fondi Marco Dijkshoorn Lenie Fani Renato Exploring the evolutionary dynamics of plasmids: the <it>Acinetobacter </it>pan-plasmidome BMC Evolutionary Biology |
| title | Exploring the evolutionary dynamics of plasmids: the <it>Acinetobacter </it>pan-plasmidome |
| title_full | Exploring the evolutionary dynamics of plasmids: the <it>Acinetobacter </it>pan-plasmidome |
| title_fullStr | Exploring the evolutionary dynamics of plasmids: the <it>Acinetobacter </it>pan-plasmidome |
| title_full_unstemmed | Exploring the evolutionary dynamics of plasmids: the <it>Acinetobacter </it>pan-plasmidome |
| title_short | Exploring the evolutionary dynamics of plasmids: the <it>Acinetobacter </it>pan-plasmidome |
| title_sort | exploring the evolutionary dynamics of plasmids the it acinetobacter it pan plasmidome |
| url | http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2148/10/59 |
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