Abstract
Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) is an important evolutionary mechanism that has shaped prokaryotic genomes. For Streptococcus thermophilus, there is no direct evidence that the bacteria might acquire a second paralog from a different origin in the same niche. In this study, we found that four isolates of S. thermophilus (B, C, E and F) from the same yoghurt contained two putative homologs of the eno genes (eno-1 and eno-2) and two putative homologs of the guaB genes (guaB-1 and guaB-2). Both eno-1 and guaB-1 shared 100% nucleotide identity among the four isolates, and with isolate A and S. thermophilus ND03. Phylogenetic and nucleotide divergence analyses indicated that guaB-2 of these isolates may have been acquired from species in the genus Streptococcus, while eno-2 of isolates B and C may have been acquired from a donor in the genus Streptococcus. The eno-2 genes of isolates E and F may have been acquired from a donor in the Enterococcus genera. Relative synonymous codon usage analysis confirmed the eno-2 genes of isolates E and F as being acquired from a donor in genus Enterococcus. This study provides evidence that interfamily and interspecies HGT occur in S. thermophilus strains isolated from the same niche.
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