2025/03/25 by Pablo Román-Escrivá, Moisès Bernabeu, Eleonora Paganin +5 · 2 voices
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies #Gut microbiota and health
paper · pdf · doi:10.3390/biology14040338
openalex publication_date 2025/03/25 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Endosymbiosis can be considered a regressive or degenerative evolutionary process characterized at the genomic level by genome erosion and degeneration due to high mutational pressure toward AT (adenine and thymine) bases. The genomic and biological complexity of endosymbionts must be lower than that of the free-living bacteria from which they evolved. In the present work, we contrasted whether two proposed metrics for measuring genomic complexity in both types of bacteria, GS and BB, reflect their complexity, expecting higher values in free-living bacteria than in endosymbionts. On the other hand, we endeavored to delve into the factors that contribute to the reduction in metric values in endosymbionts, as well as their eventual relationship with six genomic parameters associated with functionality. This study aimed to test the robustness of these proposed metrics in a well-known biological scenario, such as the endosymbiosis process.