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High abundance and expression of transposases in bacteria from the Baltic Sea

Transposases are mobile genetic elements suggested to have an important role in bacterial genome plasticity and host adaptation but their transcriptional activity in natural bacterial communities is largely unexplored. Here we analyzed metagenomes and -transcriptomes of size fractionated (0.1–0.8, 0...

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Autores principales: Vigil-Stenman, Theoden, Ininbergs, Karolina, Bergman, Birgitta, Ekman, Martin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5649170/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28731472
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2017.114
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author Vigil-Stenman, Theoden
Ininbergs, Karolina
Bergman, Birgitta
Ekman, Martin
author_facet Vigil-Stenman, Theoden
Ininbergs, Karolina
Bergman, Birgitta
Ekman, Martin
author_sort Vigil-Stenman, Theoden
collection PubMed
description Transposases are mobile genetic elements suggested to have an important role in bacterial genome plasticity and host adaptation but their transcriptional activity in natural bacterial communities is largely unexplored. Here we analyzed metagenomes and -transcriptomes of size fractionated (0.1–0.8, 0.8–3.0 and 3.0–200 μm) bacterial communities from the brackish Baltic Sea, and adjacent marine waters. The Baltic Sea transposase levels, up to 1.7% of bacterial genes and 2% of bacterial transcripts, were considerably higher than in marine waters and similar to levels reported for extreme environments. Large variations in expression were found between transposase families and groups of bacteria, with a two-fold higher transcription in Cyanobacteria than in any other phylum. The community-level results were corroborated at the genus level by Synechococcus transposases reaching up to 5.2% of genes and 6.9% of transcripts, which is in contrast to marine Synechococcus that largely lack these genes. Levels peaked in Synechococcus from the largest size fraction, suggesting high frequencies of lateral gene transfer and high genome plasticity in colony-forming picocyanobacteria. Together, the results support an elevated rate of transposition-based genome change and adaptation in bacterial populations of the Baltic Sea, and possibly also of other highly dynamic estuarine waters.
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spelling pubmed-56491702017-11-01 High abundance and expression of transposases in bacteria from the Baltic Sea Vigil-Stenman, Theoden Ininbergs, Karolina Bergman, Birgitta Ekman, Martin ISME J Original Article Transposases are mobile genetic elements suggested to have an important role in bacterial genome plasticity and host adaptation but their transcriptional activity in natural bacterial communities is largely unexplored. Here we analyzed metagenomes and -transcriptomes of size fractionated (0.1–0.8, 0.8–3.0 and 3.0–200 μm) bacterial communities from the brackish Baltic Sea, and adjacent marine waters. The Baltic Sea transposase levels, up to 1.7% of bacterial genes and 2% of bacterial transcripts, were considerably higher than in marine waters and similar to levels reported for extreme environments. Large variations in expression were found between transposase families and groups of bacteria, with a two-fold higher transcription in Cyanobacteria than in any other phylum. The community-level results were corroborated at the genus level by Synechococcus transposases reaching up to 5.2% of genes and 6.9% of transcripts, which is in contrast to marine Synechococcus that largely lack these genes. Levels peaked in Synechococcus from the largest size fraction, suggesting high frequencies of lateral gene transfer and high genome plasticity in colony-forming picocyanobacteria. Together, the results support an elevated rate of transposition-based genome change and adaptation in bacterial populations of the Baltic Sea, and possibly also of other highly dynamic estuarine waters. Nature Publishing Group 2017-11 2017-07-21 /pmc/articles/PMC5649170/ /pubmed/28731472 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2017.114 Text en Copyright © 2017 The Author(s) http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
spellingShingle Original Article
Vigil-Stenman, Theoden
Ininbergs, Karolina
Bergman, Birgitta
Ekman, Martin
High abundance and expression of transposases in bacteria from the Baltic Sea
title High abundance and expression of transposases in bacteria from the Baltic Sea
title_full High abundance and expression of transposases in bacteria from the Baltic Sea
title_fullStr High abundance and expression of transposases in bacteria from the Baltic Sea
title_full_unstemmed High abundance and expression of transposases in bacteria from the Baltic Sea
title_short High abundance and expression of transposases in bacteria from the Baltic Sea
title_sort high abundance and expression of transposases in bacteria from the baltic sea
topic Original Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5649170/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28731472
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2017.114
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