How the social lives of bacteria affect their pangenome

2026/07/23 by Fiona Jane Whelan

paper · doi:10.1042/ebc20250039

Abstract

Abstract Although the study of microbes started with type strains and reference genomes, advances in sequencing technology and new interest in mixed microbial communities have made us aware that a single genome cannot and does not reflect the diversity of a given bacterial species. Bacteria rarely occupy an environmental or host niche alone and quickly diversify into strains upon colonization of a new niche. The genetic diversity present within a phylogenetically related set of bacterial strains (the ‘pangenome’) is influenced by the niche that they occupy and how they interact with the other microorganisms that they share that niche with. In this review, I examine how the social lives of bacteria can affect their genetic diversity and the bioinformatic techniques that we use to detect that diversity.

Citations

• Co-occurrence is associated with horizontal gene transfer across marine bacteria independent of phylogeny
• Gut microbiota strain richness is species specific and affects engraftment
• Bacterial lifestyle shapes pangenomes

Related

• Bacterial lifestyle shapes pangenomes
• Impact of Culture-Independent Studies on the Emerging Phylogenetic View of Bacterial Diversity
• Defining Pathogenic Bacterial Species in the Genomic Era
• Phylogenetics and the human microbiome
• Investigating bacterial evolution in nature with metagenomics