ArticlePLoS genetics2014
Examination of prokaryotic multipartite genome evolution through experimental genome reduction.
Article in PLoS genetics, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 51 papers.
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Who cites it
51 citing papers in PubMed.
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- Mobile gene clusters and coexpressed plant-rhizobium pathways drive partner quality variation in symbiosis.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- A minimized symbiotic gene set from the 1.68 Mb pSymB chromid of Sinorhizobium meliloti reveals auxiliary symbiotic loci.BMC biology · 2025Article
- Closed genomes of commercial inoculant rhizobia provide a blueprint for management of legume inoculation.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- In silico encounters: harnessing metabolic modelling to understand plant-microbe interactions.FEMS microbiology reviews · 2025Review
- The Complex Epigenetic Panorama in the Multipartite Genome of the Nitrogen-Fixing Bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti.Genome biology and evolution · 2025Article
- Transcriptomic Response ofInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- DNA methylation by CcrM contributes to genome maintenance in the Agrobacterium tumefaciens plant pathogen.Nucleic acids research · 2024Article
- Cofitness network connectivity determines a fuzzy essential zone in open bacterial pangenome.mLife · 2024Article
- Complete Genome Sequences of the Species Type Strains Sinorhizobium garamanticum LMG 24692 and Sinorhizobium numidicum LMG 27395 and CIP 109850.Microbiology resource announcements · 2023Article
- Independent origins and evolution of the secondary replicons of the class Gammaproteobacteria.Microbial genomics · 2023Article
- GenoVi, an open-source automated circular genome visualizer for bacteria and archaea.PLoS computational biology · 2023Article
- Bipartite Genomes inInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Scent of a Symbiont: The Personalized Genetic Relationships of Rhizobium-Plant Interaction.International journal of molecular sciences · 2022Review
- DNA Methylation inmSystems · 2022Article
- What makes a megaplasmid?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Why are rhizobial symbiosis genes mobile?Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022Article
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5 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Many bacteria carry two or more chromosome-like replicons. This occurs in pathogens such as Vibrio cholerea and Brucella abortis as well as in many N2-fixing plant symbionts including all isolates of the alfalfa root-nodule bacteria Sinorhizobium meliloti. Understanding the evolution and role of this multipartite genome organization will provide significant insight into these important organisms; yet this knowledge remains incomplete, in part, because technical challenges of large-scale genome manipulations have limited experimental analyses. The distinct evolutionary histories and characteristics of the three replicons that constitute the S. meliloti genome (the chromosome (3.65 Mb), pSymA megaplasmid (1.35 Mb), and pSymB chromid (1.68 Mb)) makes this a good model to examine this topic. We transferred essential genes from pSymB into the chromosome, and constructed strains that lack pSymB as well as both pSymA and pSymB. This is the largest reduction (45.4%, 3.04 megabases, 2866 genes) of a prokaryotic genome to date and the first removal of an essential chromid. Strikingly, strains lacking pSymA and pSymB (ΔpSymAB) lost the ability to utilize 55 of 74 carbon sources and various sources of nitrogen, phosphorous and sulfur, yet the ΔpSymAB strain grew well in minimal salts media and in sterile soil. This suggests that the core chromosome is sufficient for growth in a bulk soil environment and that the pSymA and pSymB replicons carry genes with more specialized functions such as growth in the rhizosphere and interaction with the plant. These experimental data support a generalized evolutionary model, in which non-chromosomal replicons primarily carry genes with more specialized functions. These large secondary replicons increase the organism's niche range, which offsets their metabolic burden on the cell (e.g. pSymA). Subsequent co-evolution with the chromosome then leads to the formation of a chromid through the acquisition of functions core to all niches (e.g. pSymB).
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