Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24488316›Full record

ReviewJournal of bacteriology2014

Natural competence and the evolution of DNA uptake specificity.

Joshua Chang Mell, Rosemary J Redfield

Open access · bronzeAbstract readReview
In one paragraph

Review in Journal of bacteriology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 117 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
117citing papers in PubMed
8.3field-weighted citation impact, top 2% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

117 citing papers in PubMed, 245 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Utilizing natural competence to genetically manipulateApplied and environmental microbiology · 2026
    Article
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  12. DNA-utilization loci enable exogenous DNA metabolism in gut Bacteroidales.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025
    Article
  13. Article
  14. Review
  15. The extended mobility of plasmids.Nucleic acids research · 2025
    Review
  16. Review
  17. Article
  18. Review
  19. Vibrio natriegens: Application of a Fast-Growing Halophilic Bacterium.Advances in biochemical engineering/biotechnology · 2025
    Review
  20. Review

57 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Joshua Chang MellDepartment of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Rosemary J Redfield
University of British Columbia · CA

Funding

Canadian Institutes of Health Research
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Many bacteria are naturally competent, able to actively transport environmental DNA fragments across their cell envelope and into their cytoplasm. Because incoming DNA fragments can recombine with and replace homologous segments of the chromosome, competence provides cells with a potent mechanism of horizontal gene transfer as well as access to the nutrients in extracellular DNA. This review starts with an introductory overview of competence and continues with a detailed consideration of the DNA uptake specificity of competent proteobacteria in the Pasteurellaceae and Neisseriaceae. Species in these distantly related families exhibit strong preferences for genomic DNA from close relatives, a self-specificity arising from the combined effects of biases in the uptake machinery and genomic overrepresentation of the sequences this machinery prefers. Other competent species tested lack obvious uptake bias or uptake sequences, suggesting that strong convergent evolutionary forces have acted on these two families. Recent results show that uptake sequences have multiple "dialects," with clades within each family preferring distinct sequence variants and having corresponding variants enriched in their genomes. Although the genomic consensus uptake sequences are 12 and 29 to 34 bp, uptake assays have found that only central cores of 3 to 4 bp, conserved across dialects, are crucial for uptake. The other bases, which differ between dialects, make weaker individual contributions but have important cooperative interactions. Together, these results make predictions about the mechanism of DNA uptake across the outer membrane, supporting a model for the evolutionary accumulation and stability of uptake sequences and suggesting that uptake biases may be more widespread than currently thought.

Indexed as

DNA Transformation CompetenceBacteriaBiological EvolutionBiological TransportCarbonDNANitrogenRecombination, GeneticCarbonDNANitrogen

Identifiers

PMID24488316
PMCPMC3993363
OpenAlexW1974735876

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.