ArticleNature communications2021
Ecology and molecular targets of hypermutation in the global microbiome.
Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 41 papers.
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Who cites it
41 citing papers in PubMed, 83 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mobile genetic elements shape microbial diversity and functions in thawing permafrost soils.Nature microbiology · 2026Article
- Eco-evolutionary dynamics of massive, parallel bacteriophage outbreaks in compost communities.Science advances · 2026Article
- Diversity-generating retroelements for programmable targeted hypermutagenesis.Nature biotechnology · 2026Article
- A comprehensive catalogue of receptor-binding domains in extracellular contractile injection systems.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Protein structure-informed bacteriophage genome annotation with Phold.Nucleic acids research · 2026Article
- Human gut strains ofApplied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Coexistence of virome-encoded health-associated genes and pathogenic genes in global habitats.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Article
- Targeted protein evolution in the gut microbiome by diversity-generating retroelements.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2025Article
- Zeta CrAss-like Phages, a Separate Phage Family Using a Variety of Adaptive Mechanisms to Persist in Their Hosts.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- How and when organisms edit their own genomes.Nature genetics · 2025Review
- Leveraging core enzyme structures for microbiota targeted functional regulation: Urease as an example.iMeta · 2025Article
- Evolving a plant-beneficial bacterium in soil vs. nutrient-rich liquid culture has contrasting effects on in-soil fitness.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2025Article
- Incomplete lytic cycle of a widespread Bacteroides bacteriophage leads to the formation of defective viral particles.PLoS biology · 2025Article
- Identification and characterization ofMicrobiology spectrum · 2025Article
- Article
- Identification of diversity-generating retroelements in host-associated and environmental genomes: prevalence, diversity, and roles.BMC genomics · 2024Article
- Targeted protein evolution in the gut microbiome by diversity-generating retroelements.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Review
- Genome Analysis of Epsilon CrAss-like Phages.Viruses · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
19 authors at 14 institutions in 5 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Changes in the sequence of an organism's genome, i.e., mutations, are the raw material of evolution. The frequency and location of mutations can be constrained by specific molecular mechanisms, such as diversity-generating retroelements (DGRs). DGRs have been characterized from cultivated bacteria and bacteriophages, and perform error-prone reverse transcription leading to mutations being introduced in specific target genes. DGR loci were also identified in several metagenomes, but the ecological roles and evolutionary drivers of these DGRs remain poorly understood. Here, we analyze a dataset of >30,000 DGRs from public metagenomes, establish six major lineages of DGRs including three primarily encoded by phages and seemingly used to diversify host attachment proteins, and demonstrate that DGRs are broadly active and responsible for >10% of all amino acid changes in some organisms. Overall, these results highlight the constraints under which DGRs evolve, and elucidate several distinct roles these elements play in natural communities.
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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.