Foerstner Konrad U, von Mering Christian, Hooper Sean D, Bork Peer
European Molecular Biology Laboratory, Heidelberg, Germany.
EMBO Rep. 2005 Dec;6(12):1208-13. doi: 10.1038/sj.embor.7400538.
To test the impact of environments on genome evolution, we analysed the relative abundance of the nucleotides guanine and cytosine ('GC content') of large numbers of sequences from four distinct environmental samples (ocean surface water, farm soil, an acidophilic mine drainage biofilm and deep-sea whale carcasses). We show that the GC content of complex microbial communities seems to be globally and actively influenced by the environment. The observed nucleotide compositions cannot be easily explained by distinct phylogenetic origins of the species in the environments; the genomic GC content may change faster than was previously thought, and is also reflected in the amino-acid composition of the proteins in these habitats.
为了测试环境对基因组进化的影响，我们分析了来自四个不同环境样本（海洋表层水、农田土壤、嗜酸性矿山排水生物膜和深海鲸尸）的大量序列中鸟嘌呤和胞嘧啶核苷酸的相对丰度（“GC含量”）。我们发现，复杂微生物群落的GC含量似乎在全球范围内受到环境的积极影响。观察到的核苷酸组成不能简单地用环境中物种不同的系统发育起源来解释；基因组GC含量的变化可能比之前认为的要快，并且也反映在这些栖息地中蛋白质的氨基酸组成上。
