Evolution of homologous recombination rates across bacteria

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Torrance, Ellis L.; Burton, Corey; Diop, Awa; Bobay, Louis-Marie
• 署名单位: University of North Carolina; University of North Carolina Greensboro; North Carolina State University
• 刊物名称: PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0027-14203
• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2316302121
• 发表日期: 2024-04-30
• 关键词: multiple sequence alignment; genome; pathogen; inference

摘要

Bacteria are nonsexual organisms but are capable of exchanging DNA at diverse degrees through homologous recombination. Intriguingly, the rates of recombination vary immensely across lineages where some species have been described as purely clonal and others as quasi-sexual. However, estimating recombination rates has proven a difficult endeavor and estimates often vary substantially across studies. It is unclear whether these variations reflect natural variations across populations or are due to differences in methodologies. Consequently, the impact of recombination on bacterial evolution has not been extensively evaluated and the evolution of recombination rate-as a trait-remains to be accurately described. Here, we developed an approach based on Approximate Bayesian Computation that integrates multiple signals of recombination to estimate recombination rates. We inferred the rate of recombination of 162 bacterial species and one archaeon and tested the robustness of our approach. Our results confirm that recombination rates vary drastically across bacteria; however, we found that recombination rate-as a trait-is conserved in several lineages but evolves rapidly in others. Although some traits are thought to be associated with recombination rate (e.g., GC-content), we found no clear association between genomic or phenotypic traits and recombination rate. Overall, our results provide an overview of recombination rate, its evolution, and its impact on bacterial evolution.