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Investigating Evolutionary Rate Variation in Bacteria.

Beth Gibson1, Adam Eyre-Walker2

  • 1School of Life Sciences, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QG, UK.

Journal of Molecular Evolution
|October 2, 2019
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Bacterial mutation rates vary widely across species, with no clear link to genome features or selection. Differences in wild generation times likely explain much of this observed variation in bacterial evolution.

Keywords:
Accumulation rateBacteriaEvolutionary rateMutation

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Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Genomics

Background:

  • Molecular evolution rates differ significantly across species and life forms.
  • Understanding bacterial mutation accumulation rates in natural settings is crucial for evolutionary studies.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the variation in bacterial mutation accumulation rates over short time scales in natural environments.
  • To identify potential correlates of bacterial accumulation rates, including genome size, GC content, and natural selection.
  • To examine the influence of the estimation time frame on bacterial accumulation rates.

Main Methods:

  • Compiled mutation accumulation rate estimates for over 34 bacterial species, primarily pathogens.
  • Analyzed data for associations between accumulation rates and factors like genome size, GC content, and natural selection.
  • Controlled for phylogenetic non-independence in statistical analyses.

Main Results:

  • Bacterial accumulation rates varied over 3700-fold across the studied species.
  • No significant correlation was found between accumulation rates and genome size, GC content, or measures of natural selection after controlling for phylogeny.
  • The time frame of estimation did not significantly impact the observed accumulation rates.

Conclusions:

  • Bacterial mutation accumulation rates exhibit substantial interspecies variation.
  • Factors like genome size and selection do not appear to be significant drivers of this variation in the studied bacterial pathogens.
  • Differences in wild generation times are proposed as a major explanatory factor for the observed rate heterogeneity.