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 1667-1678

Subject Categories

Evolutionary Biology

Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Genetics

DOI

10.1093/molbev/msaa035

PubMed

32061128

More information

Latest update

11/22/2021