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- Title
Prokaryotic Nucleotide Composition Is Shaped by Both Phylogeny and the Environment.
- Authors
Reichenberger, Erin R.; Rosen, Gail; Hershberg, Uri; Hershberg, Ruth
- Abstract
The causes of the great variation in nucleotide composition of prokaryotic genomes have long been disputed. Here, we use extensive metagenomic and whole-genome data to demonstrate that both phylogeny and the environment shape prokaryotic nucleotide content. We show that across environments, various phyla are characterized by different mean guanine and cytosine (GC) values as well as by the extent of variation on that mean value. At the same time, we show that GC-content varies greatly as a function of environment, in a manner that cannot be entirely explained by disparities in phylogenetic composition. We find environmentally driven differences in nucleotide content not only between highly diverged environments (e.g., soil, vs. aquatic vs. human gut) but also within a single type of environment. More specifically, we demonstrate that somehuman guts are associated with a microbiome that is consistentlymore GC-rich across phyla, whereas others are associated withamoreAT-rich microbiome. These differences appear to be driven both by variations in phylogenetic composition and by environmental differences--which are independent of these phylogenetic composition differences. Combined, our results demonstrate that both phylogeny and the environment significantly affectnucleotidecompositionandthat the environmental differences affecting nucleotide composition are far subtler thanpreviously appreciated.
- Subjects
NUCLEOTIDES; PROKARYOTIC genomes; PHYLOGENY; CYTOSINE; HUMAN microbiota
- Publication
Genome Biology & Evolution, 2015, Vol 7, Issue 5, p1380
- ISSN
1759-6653
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/gbe/evv063