Zhao H-L, Xia Z-K, Hua Z-G, Wei W
Center of Bioinformatics and Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China.
Center of Bioinformatics and Key Laboratory for NeuroInformation of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
Genet Mol Res. 2015 Mar 20;14(1):1911-25. doi: 10.4238/2015.March.20.1.
Strand biases are widespread in bacterial genomes. In this review, we discuss 5 types of bias, including gene orientation, the number of open reading frames, nucleotide composition, substitution rate, and gene length, between leading and lagging strands during replication. For each type of strand bias, related studies were summarized and Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824 was used as a representative example to illustrate bias. Our results in C. acetobutylicum indicate that there is little asymmetry between 2 replication strands on open reading frame number and gene length, whereas the other 3 features presented significant strand bias. The underlying mechanisms of mutation and/or selection are discussed. It is hoped that this review will improve the understanding of the extent and reasons for various types of strand bias in bacterial genomes.
