Sexual isolation and speciation in bacteria. Export

@article{citeulike:561821, abstract = {Like organisms from all other walks of life, bacteria are capable of sexual recombination. However, unlike most plants and animals, bacteria recombine only rarely, and when they do they are extremely promiscuous in their choice of sexual partners. There may be no absolute constraints on the evolutionary distances that can be traversed through recombination in the bacterial world, but interspecies recombination is reduced by a variety of factors, including ecological isolation, behavioral isolation, obstacles to DNA entry, restriction endonuclease activity, resistance to integration of divergent DNA sequences, reversal of recombination by mismatch repair, and functional incompatibility of recombined segments. Typically, individual bacterial species are genetically variable for most of these factors. Therefore, natural selection can modulate levels of sexual isolation, to increase the transfer of genes useful to the recipient while minimizing the transfer of harmful genes. Interspecies recombination is optimized when recombination involves short segments that are just long enough to transfer an adaptation, without co-transferring potentially harmful DNA flanking the adaptation. Natural selection has apparently acted to reduce sexual isolation between bacterial species. Evolution of sexual isolation is not a milestone toward speciation in bacteria, since bacterial recombination is too rare to oppose adaptive divergence between incipient species. Ironically, recombination between incipient bacterial species may actually foster the speciation process, by prohibiting one incipient species from out-competing the other to extinction. Interspecific recombination may also foster speciation by introducing novel gene loci from divergent species, allowing invasion of new niches.}, address = {Department of Biology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459-0170, USA. fcohan@wesleyan.edu}, author = {Cohan, F. M.}, citeulike-article-id = {561821}, citeulike-linkout-0 = {http://view.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12555790}, citeulike-linkout-1 = {http://www.hubmed.org/display.cgi?uids=12555790}, citeulike-linkout-2 = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1021232409545}, comment = {Review of recombination in bacteria. Continues to state that it is "Rare but promiscuous". He outlines the mechanisms of such recombination and its implication on evolution. He notes that sexual isolation is extremely variable due to genetic variation in the mechanisms: e.g. the mismatch repair system He also discusses how natural selection may shape the recombination process: e.g. shorter segments}, doi = {10.1023/A:1021232409545}, issn = {0016-6707}, journal = {Genetica}, keywords = {horizontal-gene-transfer, microbial-species, speciation, x-microbial-species, z-paper-background, z-paper-fer1-fer2-species}, month = {November}, number = {2-3}, pages = {359--370}, posted-at = {2006-03-23 22:03:01}, priority = {0}, title = {Sexual isolation and speciation in bacteria.}, url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1021232409545}, volume = {116}, year = {2002} }

TY - JOUR ID - citeulike:561821 L3 - citeulike-article-id:561821 N2 - Like organisms from all other walks of life, bacteria are capable of sexual recombination. However, unlike most plants and animals, bacteria recombine only rarely, and when they do they are extremely promiscuous in their choice of sexual partners. There may be no absolute constraints on the evolutionary distances that can be traversed through recombination in the bacterial world, but interspecies recombination is reduced by a variety of factors, including ecological isolation, behavioral isolation, obstacles to DNA entry, restriction endonuclease activity, resistance to integration of divergent DNA sequences, reversal of recombination by mismatch repair, and functional incompatibility of recombined segments. Typically, individual bacterial species are genetically variable for most of these factors. Therefore, natural selection can modulate levels of sexual isolation, to increase the transfer of genes useful to the recipient while minimizing the transfer of harmful genes. Interspecies recombination is optimized when recombination involves short segments that are just long enough to transfer an adaptation, without co-transferring potentially harmful DNA flanking the adaptation. Natural selection has apparently acted to reduce sexual isolation between bacterial species. Evolution of sexual isolation is not a milestone toward speciation in bacteria, since bacterial recombination is too rare to oppose adaptive divergence between incipient species. Ironically, recombination between incipient bacterial species may actually foster the speciation process, by prohibiting one incipient species from out-competing the other to extinction. Interspecific recombination may also foster speciation by introducing novel gene loci from divergent species, allowing invasion of new niches. IS - 2-3 JF - Genetica SN - 0016-6707 AD - Department of Biology, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT 06459-0170, USA. fcohan@wesleyan.edu EP - 370 TI - Sexual isolation and speciation in bacteria. VL - 116 SP - 359 KW - horizontal-gene-transfer KW - microbial-species KW - speciation KW - x-microbial-species KW - z-paper-background KW - z-paper-fer1-fer2-species N1 - Review of recombination in bacteria. Continues to state that it is "Rare but promiscuous". He outlines the mechanisms of such recombination and its implication on evolution. He notes that sexual isolation is extremely variable due to genetic variation in the mechanisms: e.g. the mismatch repair system He also discusses how natural selection may shape the recombination process: e.g. shorter segments AU - Cohan, FM PY - 2002/11// UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/A:1021232409545 ER -