Genome Reduction Is Associated with Bacterial Pathogenicity across Different Scales of Temporal and Ecological Divergence
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Abstract
Emerging bacterial pathogens threaten global health and food security, and so it is important to ask whether these transitions to pathogenicity have any common features. We present a systematic study of the claim that pathogenicity is associated with genome reduction and gene loss. We compare broad-scale patterns across all bacteria, with detailed analyses of Streptococcus suis, an emerging zoonotic pathogen of pigs, which has undergone multiple transitions between disease and carriage forms. We find that pathogenicity is consistently associated with reduced genome size across three scales of divergence (between species within genera, and between and within genetic clusters of S. suis). Although genome reduction is also found in mutualist and commensal bacterial endosymbionts, genome reduction in pathogens cannot be solely attributed to the features of their ecology that they share with these species, that is, host restriction or intracellularity. Moreover, other typical correlates of genome reduction in endosymbionts (reduced metabolic capacity, reduced GC content, and the transient expansion of nonfunctional elements) are not consistently observed in pathogens. Together, our results indicate that genome reduction is a consistent correlate of pathogenicity in bacteria.
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Comparative genomic analyses usually test for correlations between traits.
“Comparative genomic analyses usually test for correlations between traits.”
From A phylogenetic approach to comparative genomics (2025) · cites this paper as [37]
The Results and Discussion section (‘Pathogenicity Is Associated with Genome Reduction at All Divergence Scales’; page unavailable) reports associations between genomic traits and pathogenicity, and the Statistical Analyses section describes tests of those associations. This supports the paper as an example of comparative genomic analysis testing trait associations, but it does not establish that such analyses usually do so. (LLM, conf=0.78)
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A phylogenetic approach to comparative genomics
Dewar, A. E., Belcher, L. J., & West, S. A. (2025) · Nature Reviews Genetics · doi:10.1038/s41576-024-00803-0 · Cited by 41 · see citing works
- Authors
- Murray, G. G. R., Charlesworth, J., Miller, E. L., Casey, M. J., Lloyd, C. T., Gottschalk, M., Tucker, A. W. (., Welch, J. J., & Weinert, L. A.
- Affiliations
- University of Cambridge (GB)
- European Bioinformatics Institute (GB)
- Haverford College (US)
- Université de Montréal (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Murray, Gemma G R
- Charlesworth, Jane
- ORCID
- Venue
- Molecular Biology and Evolution
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2020-12-12
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 1570-1579
- ISSN
- 0737-4038 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-1719
- PMC
- PMC8042751
- OpenAlex
- W3115825159
- Cited by
- 101
- References
- 2
- Citations by year
- 2026: 13 · 2025: 16 · 2024: 25 · 2023: 22 · 2022: 17 · 2021: 7 · 2020: 1
- FWCI
- 8.61
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Molecular Biology and Evolution (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- ePrints Soton (University of Southampton) (acceptedVersion)
- Apollo (University of Cambridge) (submittedVersion)
- Apollo
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust
- Royal Society (109385/Z/15/Z)
- ZELS BBSRC (BB/L018934/1)
- Research Fellowship
- EBPOD fellowship
- EBI
- 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 › Evolution and Genetic Dynamics
- Keywords
- bacterial pathogenicity, gene loss, Streptococcus suis, zoonotic pathogens, emerging pathogens, endosymbionts, mutualists, commensal bacteria, host restriction, intracellular bacteria, metabolic capacity, GC content, bacterial evolution
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Bacteria, Biological Evolution, Symbiosis, Genome, Bacterial, Genome Size
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