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Ribosomal protein genes form a barrier to horizontal gene transfer
Author(s) -
Sorek Rotem
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.23.1_supplement.lb206
Subject(s) - horizontal gene transfer , gene , ribosomal protein , biology , ribosomal rna , genome , genetics , escherichia coli , transfer rna , ribosome , rna
Horizontal gene transfer, in which genetic material is transferred from the genome of one organism to that of another, has been investigated in microbial species mainly through computational sequence analyses. To address the lack of experimental data, we studied the attempted transfer of 246,045 genes from 79 prokaryotic genomes into Escherichia coli and identified genes that consistently fail to transfer. A dominant group among these genes included ribosomal protein genes. Our data suggest that toxicity to the host inhibited transfer of these genes regardless of the species of origin and that increased gene dosage may be the predominant cause for the observed toxicity. Therefore, increased dosage of specific ribosomal proteins is toxic to bacterial cells. Possible mechanisms of toxicity and evolutionary consequences will be discussed.