Published January 5, 2023
| public
Journal Article
Gifts hidden in shadowy genome islands
- Creators
-
Utter, D. R.
-
Orphan, V. J.
Chicago
Abstract
Despite being typically perceived as "clonal" organisms, bacteria and archaea possess numerous mechanisms to share and co-opt genetic material from other lineages. Several mechanisms for horizontal gene transfer have been discovered, but the high mosaicity observed in many bacterial genomes outscales that explained by known mechanisms, hinting at yet undiscovered processes. In this issue of Cell, Hackl et al. introduce a new category of mobile genetic elements called tycheposons, providing a novel mechanism that contributes to the prodigious genomic diversity within microbial populations. The discovery and characterization of tycheposons prompts a reevaluation of microbial diversification in complex environments.
Additional Information
© 2022 Elsevier. V.J.O. and D.R.U. are supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research under Award Number (DE-SC0022991). D.R.U. is a National Science Foundation - Ocean Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2126631) and V.J.O. is a science fellow in the Canadian Institute for Advanced Science in the Earth 4D program. The authors declare no competing interests.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 121079
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20230420-614686900.8
- Department of Energy (DOE)
- DE-SC0022991
- NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship
- OCE-2126631
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR)
- Created
-
2023-05-22Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2023-05-22Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Biology and Biological Engineering