The Impact of Recombination on dN/dS within Recently Emerged Bacterial Clones

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.ppat.1002129
• Publication Date: 2011-07-14T20:53:12Z
• Authors: Santiago Castillo...; Simon R. Harris; Matthew T. G. Holden; Miao He; Julian Parkhill; Stephen D. Bentley; Edward J. Feil
• Keywords: SNP

The development of next-generation sequencing platforms is set to reveal an unprecedented level detail on short-term molecular evolutionary processes in bacteria. Here we re-analyse genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) datasets for recently emerged clones methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and Clostridium difficile. We note a highly significant enrichment synonymous SNPs those genes which have been affected by recombination, i.e. mobile elements designated "non-core" (in the case S. aureus), or core homologous replacements (S. C. difficile). This observation suggests that previously documented decrease dN/dS over time bacteria applies not only genomes differing levels divergence overall, but also horizontally acquired within genome. consider role increased drift acting emerged, specialised clones, impact recombination selection at linked sites. work has implications wide range genomic analyses.