Gene Loss and Gene Conservation in Obligatory Intracellular Parasites of Human

Title: Gene Loss and Gene Conservation in Obligatory Intracellular Parasites of Human

Volume: 2 Issue: 3

Author(s): Kishore R. Sakharkar, Meena K. Sakharkar and Vincent T.K. Chow

Affiliation:

Keywords: Obligate intracellular parasites, genome reduction, backbone genome, essential genes, comparative genomics

Abstract: Molecular characterization of various microbial genomes has revealed that many pathogenic and mutualistic intracellular bacterial species have smaller genomes than their free-living relatives. The flux, streamlining and elimination of genes in these genomes constitute a selective and ongoing process. Obligatory intracellular parasites display marked similarities in patterns of protein length and frequency distribution, with substantial sharing of a ‘backbone genome’. The results highlight that gene loss is function-dependent, but is independent of protein length. It is suggested that obligate genomes have greater proportion of overlapping genes, which may be a result of evolutionary pressure to minimize genome size. The differential loss of genes in these organisms is also reflected in their metabolic plasticity. Here, we present a review on gene loss and gene conservation in obligatory intracellular parasites. These data are essential for understanding of genome evolution and microbial pathogenesis of these organisms.

Cite this article as:

Sakharkar R. Kishore, Sakharkar K. Meena and Chow T.K. Vincent, Gene Loss and Gene Conservation in Obligatory Intracellular Parasites of Human, Current Bioinformatics 2007; 2 (3) . https://dx.doi.org/10.2174/157489307781662123