Title

Authors

Affiliation

¹Department of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Chakshahzad Campus, Park road Islamabad, Pakistan; ²Centre for Advanced Studies in Telecommunication (CAST), COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Chakshahzad Campus, Park road Islamabad, Pakistan; ³Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, George Mason University, Manassas, Virginia, USA

Email

habib@comsats.edu.pk; *Corresponding author

Article Type

Hypothesis

Date

Received June 09, 2011; Accepted June 27, 2011; Published July 06, 2011

Acquisition of new genetic material through horizontal gene transfer has been shown to be an important feature in the evolution of many pathogenic bacteria. Changes in the genetic repertoire, occurring through gene acquisition and deletion, are the major events underlying the emergence and evolution of bacterial pathogens. However, horizontal gene transfer across the domains i.e. archaea and bacteria is not so common. In this context, we explore events of horizontal gene transfer between archaea and bacteria. In order to determine whether the acquisition of archaeal genes by lateral gene transfer is an important feature in the evolutionary history of the pathogenic bacteria, we have developed a scheme of stepwise eliminations that identifies archaeal-like genes in various bacterial genomes. We report the presence of 9 genes of archaeal origin in the genomes of various bacteria, a subset of which is also unique to the pathogenic members and are not found in respective non-pathogenic counterparts. We believe that these genes, having been retained in the respective genomes through selective advantage, have key functions in the organism’s biology and may play a role in pathogenesis.

Keywords

Phylogenetics, Lateral gene transfer, Pathogenesis

Citation

Bokhari et al. Bioinformation 6(8): 293-296 (2011)
 

Edited by

P Kangueane

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.