13,447 research outputs found
Maximum likelihood estimates of pairwise rearrangement distances
Accurate estimation of evolutionary distances between taxa is important for
many phylogenetic reconstruction methods. In the case of bacteria, distances
can be estimated using a range of different evolutionary models, from single
nucleotide polymorphisms to large-scale genome rearrangements. In the case of
sequence evolution models (such as the Jukes-Cantor model and associated
metric) have been used to correct pairwise distances. Similar correction
methods for genome rearrangement processes are required to improve inference.
Current attempts at correction fall into 3 categories: Empirical computational
studies, Bayesian/MCMC approaches, and combinatorial approaches. Here we
introduce a maximum likelihood estimator for the inversion distance between a
pair of genomes, using the group-theoretic approach to modelling inversions
introduced recently. This MLE functions as a corrected distance: in particular,
we show that because of the way sequences of inversions interact with each
other, it is quite possible for minimal distance and MLE distance to
differently order the distances of two genomes from a third. This has obvious
implications for the use of minimal distance in phylogeny reconstruction. The
work also tackles the above problem allowing free rotation of the genome.
Generally a frame of reference is locked, and all computation made accordingly.
This work incorporates the action of the dihedral group so that distance
estimates are free from any a priori frame of reference.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figures. To appear in the Journal of Theoretical Biolog
Dynamics of Genome Rearrangement in Bacterial Populations
Genome structure variation has profound impacts on phenotype in organisms ranging from microbes to humans, yet little is known about how natural selection acts on genome arrangement. Pathogenic bacteria such as Yersinia pestis, which causes bubonic and pneumonic plague, often exhibit a high degree of genomic rearrangement. The recent availability of several Yersinia genomes offers an unprecedented opportunity to study the evolution of genome structure and arrangement. We introduce a set of statistical methods to study patterns of rearrangement in circular chromosomes and apply them to the Yersinia. We constructed a multiple alignment of eight Yersinia genomes using Mauve software to identify 78 conserved segments that are internally free from genome rearrangement. Based on the alignment, we applied Bayesian statistical methods to infer the phylogenetic inversion history of Yersinia. The sampling of genome arrangement reconstructions contains seven parsimonious tree topologies, each having different histories of 79 inversions. Topologies with a greater number of inversions also exist, but were sampled less frequently. The inversion phylogenies agree with results suggested by SNP patterns. We then analyzed reconstructed inversion histories to identify patterns of rearrangement. We confirm an over-representation of “symmetric inversions”—inversions with endpoints that are equally distant from the origin of chromosomal replication. Ancestral genome arrangements demonstrate moderate preference for replichore balance in Yersinia. We found that all inversions are shorter than expected under a neutral model, whereas inversions acting within a single replichore are much shorter than expected. We also found evidence for a canonical configuration of the origin and terminus of replication. Finally, breakpoint reuse analysis reveals that inversions with endpoints proximal to the origin of DNA replication are nearly three times more frequent. Our findings represent the first characterization of genome arrangement evolution in a bacterial population evolving outside laboratory conditions. Insight into the process of genomic rearrangement may further the understanding of pathogen population dynamics and selection on the architecture of circular bacterial chromosomes
Group-theoretic models of the inversion process in bacterial genomes
The variation in genome arrangements among bacterial taxa is largely due to
the process of inversion. Recent studies indicate that not all inversions are
equally probable, suggesting, for instance, that shorter inversions are more
frequent than longer, and those that move the terminus of replication are less
probable than those that do not. Current methods for establishing the inversion
distance between two bacterial genomes are unable to incorporate such
information. In this paper we suggest a group-theoretic framework that in
principle can take these constraints into account. In particular, we show that
by lifting the problem from circular permutations to the affine symmetric
group, the inversion distance can be found in polynomial time for a model in
which inversions are restricted to acting on two regions. This requires the
proof of new results in group theory, and suggests a vein of new combinatorial
problems concerning permutation groups on which group theorists will be needed
to collaborate with biologists. We apply the new method to inferring distances
and phylogenies for published Yersinia pestis data.Comment: 19 pages, 7 figures, in Press, Journal of Mathematical Biolog
The genome of the medieval Black Death agent (extended abstract)
The genome of a 650 year old Yersinia pestis bacteria, responsible for the
medieval Black Death, was recently sequenced and assembled into 2,105 contigs
from the main chromosome. According to the point mutation record, the medieval
bacteria could be an ancestor of most Yersinia pestis extant species, which
opens the way to reconstructing the organization of these contigs using a
comparative approach. We show that recent computational paleogenomics methods,
aiming at reconstructing the organization of ancestral genomes from the
comparison of extant genomes, can be used to correct, order and complete the
contig set of the Black Death agent genome, providing a full chromosome
sequence, at the nucleotide scale, of this ancient bacteria. This sequence
suggests that a burst of mobile elements insertions predated the Black Death,
leading to an exceptional genome plasticity and increase in rearrangement rate.Comment: Extended abstract of a talk presented at the conference JOBIM 2013,
https://colloque.inra.fr/jobim2013_eng/. Full paper submitte
Characteristics of oligonucleotide frequencies across genomes: Conservation versus variation, strand symmetry, and evolutionary implications
One of the objectives of evolutionary genomics is to reveal the genetic information contained in the primordial genome (called the primary genetic information in this paper, with the primordial genome defined here as the most primitive nucleic acid genome for earth’s life) by searching for primitive traits or relics remained in modern genomes. As the shorter a sequence is, the less probable it would be modified during genome evolution. For that reason, some characteristics of very short nucleotide sequences would have considerable chances to persist during billions of years of evolution. Consequently, conservation of certain genomic features of mononucleotides, dinucleotides, and higher-order oligonucleotides across various genomes may exist; some, if not all, of these features would be relics of the primary genetic information. Based on this assumption, we analyzed the pattern of frequencies of mononucleotides, dinucleotides, and higher-order oligonucleotides of the whole-genome sequences from 458 species (including archaea, bacteria, and eukaryotes). Also, we studied the phenomenon of strand symmetry in these genomes. The results show that the conservation of frequencies of some dinucleotides and higher-order oligonucleotides across genomes does exist, and that strand symmetry is a ubiquitous and explicit phenomenon that may contribute to frequency conservation. We propose a new hypothesis for the origin of strand symmetry and frequency conservation as well as for the constitution of early genomes. We conclude that the phenomena of strand symmetry and the pattern of frequency conservation would be original features of the primary genetic information
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