The Ingenuity of Bacterial Genomes

2020/07/21 by Paul C. Kirchberger, Marian L. Schmidt, Howard Ochman · 1 citation
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Environmental Science · #Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies #Bacteriophages and microbial interactions #CRISPR and Genetic Engineering

paper · doi:10.1146/annurev-micro-020518-115822

openalex publication_date 2020/07/21 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

The genomes of bacteria contain fewer genes and substantially less noncoding DNA than those of eukaryotes, and as a result, they have much less raw material to invent new traits. Yet, bacteria are vastly more taxonomically diverse, numerically abundant, and globally successful in colonizing new habitats compared to eukaryotes. Although bacterial genomes are generally considered to be optimized for efficient growth and rapid adaptation, nonadaptive processes have played a major role in shaping the size, contents, and compact organization of bacterial genomes and have allowed the establishment of deleterious traits that serve as the raw materials for genetic innovation.

Citations

• Genome sequence of the endocellular bacterial symbiont of aphids Buchnera sp. APS
• Accelerated evolution and Muller's rachet in endosymbiotic bacteria.
• Evolutionary Rate at the Molecular Level
• Extraordinary expansion of a Sorangium cellulosum genome from an alkaline milieu
• Birth of a unique enzyme from an alternative reading frame of the preexisted, internally repetitious coding sequence.
• Genome sequence of the cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus marinus SS120, a nearly minimal oxyphototrophic genome
• The relation of recombination to mutational advance
• Evidence That Mutation Is Universally Biased towards AT in Bacteria
• Historical contingency and the evolution of a key innovation in an experimental population of Escherichia coli
• Evidence for the recent origin of a bacterial protein-coding, overlapping orphan gene by evolutionary overprinting
• The Molecular Chaperone DnaK Is a Source of Mutational Robustness
• Shining a light on enzyme promiscuity
• The Essential Genome of Escherichia coli K-12
• De novo gene birth
• The Ecology and Evolution of Pangenomes
• The effect of linkage on limits to artificial selection

Cited by

• Genome [wikipedia]