Extreme genome reduction in symbiotic bacteria
Abstract
Since 2006, numerous cases of bacterial symbionts with extraordinarily small genomes have been reported. These organisms represent independent lineages from diverse bacterial groups. They have diminutive gene sets that rival some mitochondria and chloroplasts in terms of gene numbers and lack genes that are considered to be essential in other bacteria. These symbionts have numerous features in common, such as extraordinarily fast protein evolution and a high abundance of chaperones. Together, these features point to highly degenerate genomes that retain only the most essential functions, often including a considerable fraction of genes that serve the hosts. These discoveries have implications for the concept of minimal genomes, the origins of cellular organelles, and studies of symbiosis and host-associated microbiota.
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The pattern of stronger relaxation in primary than secondary endosymbionts was expected because primary endosymbionts likely experience tighter bottlenecks during vertical transmission and their genomes show greater evidence of extreme evolutionary features (e.g., gene loss and AT bias).
“This pattern was expected since primary endosymbionts likely experience tighter bottlenecks during vertical transmission and their genomes show greater evidence of extreme evolutionary features (e.g., gene loss and AT bias; McCutcheon and Moran 2012).”
From RELAX: Detecting Relaxed Selection in a Phylogenetic Framework (2015) · cites this paper as McCutcheon and Moran 2012
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- Authors
- McCutcheon, J. P., & Moran, N. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Montana (US)
- Yale University (US)
- Venue
- Nature Reviews Microbiology
- Published
- 2011-11-08
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 13-26
- ISSN
- 1740-1526 (ISSN-L)
- 1740-1534
- OpenAlex
- W2092604303
- Cited by
- 1,464
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 96 · 2025: 96 · 2024: 139 · 2023: 91 · 2022: 104 · 2021: 122 · 2020: 93 · 2019: 107 · 2018: 116 · 2017: 99 · 2016: 95 · 2015: 91 · 2014: 87 · 2013: 74 · 2012: 49
- FWCI
- 6.11
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Licence
- www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
- Locations
- Nature Reviews Microbiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Insect Science › Insect symbiosis and bacterial influences
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Biology › Genomics and Phylogenetic Studies
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Genetics › Bacterial Genetics and Biotechnology
- Keywords
- genome reduction, symbiotic bacteria, minimal genome, symbiosis, protein evolution, molecular chaperones, gene degeneration, host-associated microbiota, essential genes
- MeSH terms
- Models, Biological, Symbiosis, Genome, Bacterial, Sequence Deletion, Bacterial Physiological Phenomena, Evolution, Molecular, Genome Size
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