Evolutionary Analysis of the Bacillus subtilis Genome Reveals New Genes Involved in Sporulation
Journal article, 2020
Bacilli can form dormant, highly resistant, and metabolically inactive spores to cope with extreme environmental challenges. In this study, we examined the evolutionary age of Bacillus subtilis sporulation genes using the approach known as genomic phylostratigraphy. We found that B. subtilis sporulation genes cluster in several groups that emerged at distant evolutionary time-points, suggesting that the sporulation process underwent several stages of expansion. Next, we asked whether such evolutionary stratification of the genome could be used to predict involvement in sporulation of presently uncharacterized genes (y-genes). We individually inactivated a representative sample of uncharacterized genes that arose during the same evolutionary periods as the known sporulation genes and tested the resulting strains for sporulation phenotypes. Sporulation was significantly affected in 16 out of 37 (43%) tested strains. In addition to expanding the knowledge base on B. subtilis sporulation, our findings suggest that evolutionary age could be used to help with genome mining.
genomic phylostratigraphy
sporulation
Bacillus subtilis
genome mining
Author
Lei Shi
Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology
Abderahmane Derouiche
Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology
Santosh Pandit
Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology
Shadi Rahimi
Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology
Aida Kalantari
Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology
Momir Futo
Ruder Boskovic Institute
Vaishnavi Ravikumar
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
Carsten Jers
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
Venkata Raghavendra Subrahmanya Sar Mokkapati
Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology
Kristian Vlahovicek
University of Zagreb
University of Skövde
Ivan Mijakovic
Technical University of Denmark (DTU)
Chalmers, Biology and Biological Engineering, Systems and Synthetic Biology
Molecular Biology and Evolution
0737-4038 (ISSN) 1537-1719 (eISSN)
Vol. 37 6 1667-1678Subject Categories
Evolutionary Biology
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Genetics
DOI
10.1093/molbev/msaa035
PubMed
32061128