An effective method for scanning bacterial genomes for genetic drivers of adaptation

What is it about?

Comparing the genomes of bacteria associated with different niches or phenotypes can reveal the genetic mechanisms driving key differences in lifestyle and virulence. However, bacteria mutate frequently, and there are often a large amount of mutations that differentiate individual strains. Some of these mutations will have large impacts on phenotype, while others will have little to no measurable impact. DeltaBS provides a method of scanning the protein coding genes of bacteria for mutations that are rarely observed in nature, and are therefore likely to be selected against under most circumstances. We show that this is an effective method for identifying gene degradation associated with niche adaptation.

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Why is it important?

Comparative genomics generates a huge amount of data, and deciding what data are important and what aren't is challenging. DeltaBS provides a filtering mechanism for filtering variants down to those that are most likely to impact phenotype. It also allows researchers to pool mutations that occur int he same gene, and weight them by their functional effect, improving our ability to detect parallel evolution on the level of protein function.

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