Abstract
Strains within a bacterial species typically have a set of conserved core genes and a variable set of accessory genes. The accessory genes often appear to move laterally between strains, thereby forming new trait combinations. Sometimes, genetic material also moves laterally between species, thereby resulting in diffuse borders between them. The growing number of genome sequences offers new possibilities to study these processes. Ten species for which abundant genomic data exists were here selected for analysis of the species border integrity. The average core genome similarities and relative core genome sizes (RCGSs) were determined for strain pairs within the species and for strain pairs crossing the species border. The variability within the species as well as the border integrity varies for different bacterial species. Some have very distinct borders while others are more or less indefinable. From the growing amount of genomic data, it becomes even clearer that the concept of bacterial species is, in many cases, far from absolute.
Highlights
In higher eukaryotes, a species is often defined as a group of organisms that are so reproductively isolated that interbreeding with other species cannot occur or does not result in a fertile offspring
The genomic information was here used to study the genetic integrity of these bacterial species in terms of core genome sequence variability and variations in the relative size of the core genome/accessory genome
The relative core genome sizes (RCGSs) values fluctuated between 90–99% with modest correlation with the average core genome similarity (ACGS) values
Summary
Reviewed by: Kalai Mathee, Florida International University, USA Nick S. Jakubovics, Newcastle University, UK Jean-Marc Rolain, URMITE CNRS-IRD UMR 6236, France. Strains within a bacterial species typically have a set of conserved core genes and a variable set of accessory genes. The accessory genes often appear to move laterally between strains, thereby forming new trait combinations. The growing number of genome sequences offers new possibilities to study these processes. Ten species for which abundant genomic data exists were here selected for analysis of the species border integrity. The variability within the species as well as the border integrity varies for different bacterial species. From the growing amount of genomic data, it becomes even clearer that the concept of bacterial species is, in many cases, far from absolute
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