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Why are rhizobial symbiosis genes mobile?

Rhizobia are one of the most important and best studied groups of bacterial symbionts. They are defined by their ability to establish nitrogen-fixing intracellular infections within plant hosts. One surprising feature of this symbiosis is that the bacterial genes required for this complex trait are...

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Autores principales: Wardell, Grace E., Hynes, Michael F., Young, Peter J., Harrison, Ellie
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8628070/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34839705
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0471
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author Wardell, Grace E.
Hynes, Michael F.
Young, Peter J.
Harrison, Ellie
author_facet Wardell, Grace E.
Hynes, Michael F.
Young, Peter J.
Harrison, Ellie
author_sort Wardell, Grace E.
collection PubMed
description Rhizobia are one of the most important and best studied groups of bacterial symbionts. They are defined by their ability to establish nitrogen-fixing intracellular infections within plant hosts. One surprising feature of this symbiosis is that the bacterial genes required for this complex trait are not fixed within the chromosome, but are encoded on mobile genetic elements (MGEs), namely plasmids or integrative and conjugative elements. Evidence suggests that many of these elements are actively mobilizing within rhizobial populations, suggesting that regular symbiosis gene transfer is part of the ecology of rhizobial symbionts. At first glance, this is counterintuitive. The symbiosis trait is highly complex, multipartite and tightly coevolved with the legume hosts, while transfer of genes can be costly and disrupt coadaptation between the chromosome and the symbiosis genes. However, horizontal gene transfer is a process driven not only by the interests of the host bacterium, but also, and perhaps predominantly, by the interests of the MGEs that facilitate it. Thus understanding the role of horizontal gene transfer in the rhizobium–legume symbiosis requires a ‘mobile genetic element's-eye view' on the ecology and evolution of this important symbiosis. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The secret lives of microbial mobile genetic elements’.
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spelling pubmed-86280702021-12-23 Why are rhizobial symbiosis genes mobile? Wardell, Grace E. Hynes, Michael F. Young, Peter J. Harrison, Ellie Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci Articles Rhizobia are one of the most important and best studied groups of bacterial symbionts. They are defined by their ability to establish nitrogen-fixing intracellular infections within plant hosts. One surprising feature of this symbiosis is that the bacterial genes required for this complex trait are not fixed within the chromosome, but are encoded on mobile genetic elements (MGEs), namely plasmids or integrative and conjugative elements. Evidence suggests that many of these elements are actively mobilizing within rhizobial populations, suggesting that regular symbiosis gene transfer is part of the ecology of rhizobial symbionts. At first glance, this is counterintuitive. The symbiosis trait is highly complex, multipartite and tightly coevolved with the legume hosts, while transfer of genes can be costly and disrupt coadaptation between the chromosome and the symbiosis genes. However, horizontal gene transfer is a process driven not only by the interests of the host bacterium, but also, and perhaps predominantly, by the interests of the MGEs that facilitate it. Thus understanding the role of horizontal gene transfer in the rhizobium–legume symbiosis requires a ‘mobile genetic element's-eye view' on the ecology and evolution of this important symbiosis. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The secret lives of microbial mobile genetic elements’. The Royal Society 2022-01-17 2021-11-29 /pmc/articles/PMC8628070/ /pubmed/34839705 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0471 Text en © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Articles
Wardell, Grace E.
Hynes, Michael F.
Young, Peter J.
Harrison, Ellie
Why are rhizobial symbiosis genes mobile?
title Why are rhizobial symbiosis genes mobile?
title_full Why are rhizobial symbiosis genes mobile?
title_fullStr Why are rhizobial symbiosis genes mobile?
title_full_unstemmed Why are rhizobial symbiosis genes mobile?
title_short Why are rhizobial symbiosis genes mobile?
title_sort why are rhizobial symbiosis genes mobile?
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8628070/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34839705
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0471
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