Maintenance of multipartite genome system and its functional significance in bacteria

Journal of genetics

GANESH KUMAR MAURYA^1,2¹  HARI SHARAN MISRA^1,2² 

[1] Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai 400 094, India^2;Molecular Biology Division, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai 400 085, India^1

关键词: bacterial pathogenesis;    genome segregation;    multipartite genome maintenance;    radioresistance;    recombination pathways;    serine/threonine protein kinases;    stress tolerance.;   

DOI  :  

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Indian Academy of Sciences

【 摘 要 】

Bacteria are unicellular organisms that do not show compartmentalization of the genetic material and other cellular organelles as seen in higher organisms. Earlier, bacterial genomes were defined as single circular chromosome and extra chromosomal plasmids. Recently, many bacteria were found harbouring multipartite genome system and the numbers of copies of genome elements including chromosomes vary from one to several per cell. Interestingly, it is noticed that majority of multipartite genome-harbouring bacteria are either stress tolerant or pathogens. Further, it is observed that the secondary genomes in these bacteria encode proteins that are involved in bacterial genome maintenance and also contribute to higher stress tolerance, and pathogenicity in pathogenicbacteria. Surprisingly, in some bacteria the genes encoding the proteins of classical homologous recombination pathways are present only on the secondary chromosomes, and some do not have either of the classical homologous recombination pathways. This review highlights the presence of ploidy and multipartite genomes in bacterial system, the underlying mechanisms of genome maintenance and the possibilities of these features contributing to higher abiotic and biotic stress tolerance in these bacteria.

【 授权许可】

CC BY