Fundacion Ciencia and Vida, Santiago, Chile.
Millennium Nucleus in the Biology of Intestinal Microbiota, Santiago Chile.
Curr Issues Mol Biol. 2021;40:231-266. doi: 10.21775/cimb.040.231. Epub 2020 Jul 4.
Over the last couple of decades there has been considerable progress in the identification and understanding of the mobile genetic elements that are exchanged between microbes in extremely acidic environments, and of the genes piggybacking on them. Numerous plasmid families, unique viruses of bizarre morphologies and lyfe cycles, as well as plasmid-virus chimeras, have been isolated from acidophiles and characterized to varying degrees. Growing evidence provided by omic-studies have shown that the mobile elements repertoire is not restricted to plasmids and viruses, but that a plethora of integrative elements ranging from miniature inverted repeat transposable elements to large integrative conjugative elements populate the genomes of acidophilic bacteria and archaea. This article reviews the diversity of elements that have been found to constitute the flexible genome of acidophiles. Special emphasis is put on the knowledge generated for (archaea) and species of the bacterial genera and . Also, recent knowledge on the strategies used by acidophiles to contain deletereous exchanges while allowing innovation, and the emerging details of the molecular biology of these systems, are discussed. Major lacunae in our understanding of the mobilome of acidophilic prokaryotes and topics for further investigations are identified.
在过去的几十年中，人们在识别和理解在极端酸性环境中微生物之间交换的移动遗传元件，以及在它们上面搭载的基因方面取得了相当大的进展。已经从嗜酸菌中分离出了许多质粒家族、形态和生命周期奇特的独特病毒，以及质粒-病毒嵌合体，并对它们进行了不同程度的表征。越来越多的组学研究证据表明，移动元件库不仅限于质粒和病毒，而是存在大量的整合元件，从微型反向重复转座元件到大型整合性 conjugative 元件，这些元件都存在于嗜酸细菌和古菌的基因组中。本文综述了构成嗜酸菌灵活基因组的各种元件的多样性。特别强调了对 （古菌）和属 和 的物种的研究。此外，还讨论了嗜酸菌在允许创新的同时控制有害交换所使用的策略，以及这些系统的分子生物学的新细节。确定了我们对嗜酸原核生物的可移动基因组的理解中的主要空白，并确定了进一步研究的主题。
