Deletional Bias across the Three Domains of Life Export

@article{citeulike:5109846, abstract = {Elevated levels of genetic drift are hypothesized to be a dominant factor that influences genome size evolution across all life-forms. However, increased levels of drift appear to be correlated with genome expansion in eukaryotes but with genome contraction in bacteria, suggesting that these two groups of organisms experience vastly different mutational inputs and selective constraints. To determine the contribution of small insertion and deletion events to the differences in genome organization between eukaryotes and prokaryotes, we systematically surveyed 17 taxonomic groups across the three domains of life. Based on over 5,000 indel events in noncoding regions, we found that deletional events outnumbered insertions in all groups examined. The extent of deletional bias, when measured by the total length of insertions to deletions, revealed a marked disparity between eukaryotes and prokaryotes, whereas the ratio was close to one in the three eukaryotic groups examined, deletions outweighed insertions by at least a factor of 10 in most prokaryotes. Moreover, the strength of deletional bias is associated with the proportion of coding regions in prokaryotic genomes. Considering that genetic drift is a stochastic process and does not discriminate the exact nature of mutations, the degree of bias toward deletions provides an explanation to the differential responses of eukaryotes and prokaryotes to elevated levels of drift. Furthermore, deletional bias, rather than natural selection, is the primary mechanism by which the compact gene packing within most prokaryotic genomes is maintained. 10.1093/gbe/evp016}, author = {Kuo, Chih-Horng and Ochman, Howard}, citeulike-article-id = {5109846}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evp016}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://gbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/2009/145.abstract}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://gbe.oxfordjournals.org/content/2009/145.full.pdf}, day = {10}, doi = {10.1093/gbe/evp016}, journal = {Genome Biol Evol}, keywords = {chromosome, drift, evolution, indel}, month = {July}, number = {0}, pages = {145--152}, posted-at = {2009-07-10 19:33:35}, priority = {2}, title = {Deletional Bias across the Three Domains of Life}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evp016}, volume = {2009}, year = {2009} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:5109846 L3 - citeulike-article-id:5109846 N2 - Elevated levels of genetic drift are hypothesized to be a dominant factor that influences genome size evolution across all life-forms. However, increased levels of drift appear to be correlated with genome expansion in eukaryotes but with genome contraction in bacteria, suggesting that these two groups of organisms experience vastly different mutational inputs and selective constraints. To determine the contribution of small insertion and deletion events to the differences in genome organization between eukaryotes and prokaryotes, we systematically surveyed 17 taxonomic groups across the three domains of life. Based on over 5,000 indel events in noncoding regions, we found that deletional events outnumbered insertions in all groups examined. The extent of deletional bias, when measured by the total length of insertions to deletions, revealed a marked disparity between eukaryotes and prokaryotes, whereas the ratio was close to one in the three eukaryotic groups examined, deletions outweighed insertions by at least a factor of 10 in most prokaryotes. Moreover, the strength of deletional bias is associated with the proportion of coding regions in prokaryotic genomes. Considering that genetic drift is a stochastic process and does not discriminate the exact nature of mutations, the degree of bias toward deletions provides an explanation to the differential responses of eukaryotes and prokaryotes to elevated levels of drift. Furthermore, deletional bias, rather than natural selection, is the primary mechanism by which the compact gene packing within most prokaryotic genomes is maintained. 10.1093/gbe/evp016 IS - 0 JF - Genome Biol Evol EP - 152 TI - Deletional Bias across the Three Domains of Life VL - 2009 SP - 145 KW - chromosome KW - drift KW - evolution KW - indel AU - Kuo, Chih-Horng AU - Ochman, Howard PY - 2009/07/10/ UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/gbe/evp016 ER -