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Updated: Aug 13, 2026

Live-Cell Imaging of the Life Cycle of Bacterial Predator Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus using Time-Lapse Fluorescence Microscopy
Published on: May 8, 2020
Ancient lateral gene transfer in the evolution of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus
Uri Gophna1, Robert L Charlebois, W Ford Doolittle
1Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology, The George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel. urigo@tauex.tau.ac.il
Abstract:
The recently sequenced genome of the predatory delta-proteobacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus provides many insights into its metabolism and evolution. Because its genes are reasonably uniform in G+C content, it was suggested that B. bacteriovorus actively resists recombination with foreign DNA and horizontal transfer of DNA from other bacteria. To investigate this further, we carried out a variety of phylogenetic and comparative genomics analyses using data from >200 microbial genomes, including several published delta-proteobacteria. Although there might be little evidence for the extensive recent transfer of genes, we demonstrate that ancient lateral gene acquisition has shaped the B. bacteriovorus genome to a great extent.
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