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Modelling bacterial speciation.

William P Hanage1, Brian G Spratt, Katherine M E Turner

  • 1Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, St Mary's Hospital Campus, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, UK.

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences
|October 26, 2006
PubMed
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Bacterial speciation can lead to distinct genetic clusters, even with high recombination rates, if recombination decreases with genetic distance. However, neutral drift alone may not be sufficient to explain species formation in nature.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Microbial genetics
  • Population genetics

Background:

  • Bacterial speciation is poorly understood, particularly how distinct clusters form and persist despite gene recombination.
  • Recombination can homogenize bacterial populations, posing a challenge to the emergence of species.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the conditions under which a uniform bacterial population can develop into distinct, persistent clusters.
  • To model the emergence of genotypic clusters using a neutral Fisher-Wright model.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized a neutral Fisher-Wright model to simulate genotype changes via mutation and recombination.
  • Examined 140 house-keeping loci to define genotypes.
  • Simulated scenarios with equal recombination rates and distance-scaled recombination rates.

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Main Results:

  • High, uniform recombination rates prevent cluster formation, leading to either clonal or sexual population structures.
  • Distance-scaled recombination, where it decreases with genetic distance, promotes the emergence of distinct genotypic clusters.
  • These clusters exhibit properties of species, with high within-cluster and low between-cluster recombination, mimicking sympatric speciation.

Conclusions:

  • Distance-scaled recombination can drive population splitting and mimic speciation under neutral drift.
  • Empirical data suggest that the observed decline in recombination with genetic distance is likely too shallow to generate species solely through neutral processes.
  • Additional mechanisms beyond neutral drift may be required to explain bacterial speciation in the presence of recombination.