engleski

Genes involved in horizontal gene transfer across different environments

Horizontal gene transfer (HGT ; also named lateral gene transfer) enables the acquisition of new genes between closely or distantly related organisms and it occurs within and between all three domains of life (Eukarya, Bacteria and Archaea). This process can help microbes to adapt to different environments by allowing molecular innovations to be traded within ecological niches. The extent of HGT in natural populations from different environments remains largely unknown and existing data are mostly limited to particular habitats. We compared the extent of HGT from various natural populations using available metagenomic data. Since metagenomes represent total DNA from all microbes present in particular environment, they represent genetic profile of particular sample much better than traditional culture-dependent analyses (it is estimated that over 99 % of bacteria living on Earth today cannot be grown in laboratory). We analyzed frequency and diversity of genes involved in HGT mechanisms in metagenomes from wide variety of environments: water (salt and fresh), soil, drainages, gut content, etc. MG-RAST database was used as a major source of different metagenomes and the abundance of total HGT as well as the abundance of six HGT subcategories: gene transfer agents (GTA), pathogenicity islands (PAIs), phages and prophages (PP), transposable elements (TE), plasmid related functions (PRF) and integrons (I), were determined. Finally, a detailed statistics analysis was used to present the obtained differences in HGT gene content in selected various environments.

environment ; Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) ; metagenome

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