Horizontal gene transfer and cooperation in bacteria
Bacteria are capable of a wide range of cooperative behaviours. It has been suggested that horizontal gene transfer, which is common in bacteria, could help to stabilise cooperation and prevent the invasion of non-cooperative cheats. Research on this hypothesis has largely focused on plasmids: genet...
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| Diğer Yazarlar: | |
| Materyal Türü: | Tez |
| Dil: | English |
| Baskı/Yayın Bilgisi: |
2021
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| Konular: |
| _version_ | 1826292622352711680 |
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| author | Dewar, AE |
| author2 | West, S |
| author_facet | West, S Dewar, AE |
| author_sort | Dewar, AE |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | Bacteria are capable of a wide range of cooperative behaviours. It has been suggested that horizontal gene transfer, which is common in bacteria, could help to stabilise cooperation and prevent the invasion of non-cooperative cheats. Research on this hypothesis has largely focused on plasmids: genetic sequences found across bacteria that can often transfer to other cells. Here, I test two key predictions of this hypothesis across 51 bacterial species. Contrary to these predictions, I find that genes for cooperation are not more likely to be carried on: (1) plasmids compared to chromosomes; (2) more mobile plasmids compared to less mobile plasmids. Next, I explore characteristics of plasmids themselves. First, I examine correlations between three potential ‘life-history’ traits of plasmids: size, mobility and range. Second, I find that plasmid sequences are consistently enriched with A and T nucleotide bases compared to chromosomes, and explore two hypotheses for why this is the case. Finally, horizontal gene transfer can impact the content of bacterial genomes. To explore these impacts, I test whether bacterial species’ genomes become more variable with increasing environmental variability. Overall, in this thesis I consider the evolution of cooperation and horizontal gene transfer in bacteria, and how they may interact. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:17:32Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oxford-uuid:b64e9232-3dbe-409d-b300-89723eceb256 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T03:17:32Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:b64e9232-3dbe-409d-b300-89723eceb2562022-03-27T04:40:02ZHorizontal gene transfer and cooperation in bacteriaThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:b64e9232-3dbe-409d-b300-89723eceb256MicrobiologyEvolutionGenomicsEnglishHyrax Deposit2021Dewar, AEWest, SGriffin, AGhoul, MBacteria are capable of a wide range of cooperative behaviours. It has been suggested that horizontal gene transfer, which is common in bacteria, could help to stabilise cooperation and prevent the invasion of non-cooperative cheats. Research on this hypothesis has largely focused on plasmids: genetic sequences found across bacteria that can often transfer to other cells. Here, I test two key predictions of this hypothesis across 51 bacterial species. Contrary to these predictions, I find that genes for cooperation are not more likely to be carried on: (1) plasmids compared to chromosomes; (2) more mobile plasmids compared to less mobile plasmids. Next, I explore characteristics of plasmids themselves. First, I examine correlations between three potential ‘life-history’ traits of plasmids: size, mobility and range. Second, I find that plasmid sequences are consistently enriched with A and T nucleotide bases compared to chromosomes, and explore two hypotheses for why this is the case. Finally, horizontal gene transfer can impact the content of bacterial genomes. To explore these impacts, I test whether bacterial species’ genomes become more variable with increasing environmental variability. Overall, in this thesis I consider the evolution of cooperation and horizontal gene transfer in bacteria, and how they may interact. |
| spellingShingle | Microbiology Evolution Genomics Dewar, AE Horizontal gene transfer and cooperation in bacteria |
| title | Horizontal gene transfer and cooperation in bacteria |
| title_full | Horizontal gene transfer and cooperation in bacteria |
| title_fullStr | Horizontal gene transfer and cooperation in bacteria |
| title_full_unstemmed | Horizontal gene transfer and cooperation in bacteria |
| title_short | Horizontal gene transfer and cooperation in bacteria |
| title_sort | horizontal gene transfer and cooperation in bacteria |
| topic | Microbiology Evolution Genomics |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT dewarae horizontalgenetransferandcooperationinbacteria |