Touchon Marie, Rocha Eduardo P C
Microbial Evolutionary Genomics, Institut Pasteur, 75015 Paris, France CNRS, UMR3525, 75015 Paris, France.
Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2016 Jan 4;8(1):a018168. doi: 10.1101/cshperspect.a018168.
The cytoplasm of prokaryotes contains many molecular machines interacting directly with the chromosome. These vital interactions depend on the chromosome structure, as a molecule, and on the genome organization, as a unit of genetic information. Strong selection for the organization of the genetic elements implicated in these interactions drives replicon ploidy, gene distribution, operon conservation, and the formation of replication-associated traits. The genomes of prokaryotes are also very plastic with high rates of horizontal gene transfer and gene loss. The evolutionary conflicts between plasticity and organization lead to the formation of regions with high genetic diversity whose impact on chromosome structure is poorly understood. Prokaryotic genomes are remarkable documents of natural history because they carry the imprint of all of these selective and mutational forces. Their study allows a better understanding of molecular mechanisms, their impact on microbial evolution, and how they can be tinkered in synthetic biology.
原核生物的细胞质包含许多直接与染色体相互作用的分子机器。这些至关重要的相互作用既取决于作为分子的染色体结构，也取决于作为遗传信息单位的基因组组织。对参与这些相互作用的遗传元件组织的强烈选择驱动了复制子倍性、基因分布、操纵子保守性以及与复制相关性状的形成。原核生物的基因组也具有很高的可塑性，水平基因转移和基因丢失的发生率很高。可塑性与组织之间的进化冲突导致了高遗传多样性区域的形成，而人们对这些区域对染色体结构的影响了解甚少。原核生物基因组是自然历史的重要记录，因为它们承载了所有这些选择和突变力量的印记。对它们的研究有助于更好地理解分子机制、它们对微生物进化的影响，以及如何在合成生物学中对其进行改造。
