期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2010
卷号：107
期号：1
页码：127-132
DOI：10.1073/pnas.0908978107
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：DNA flows between chromosomes and mobile elements, following rules that are poorly understood. This limited knowledge is partly explained by the limits of current approaches to study the structure and evolution of genetic diversity. Network analyses of 119,381 homologous DNA families, sampled from 111 cellular genomes and from 165,529 phage, plasmid, and environmental virome sequences, offer challenging insights. Our results support a disconnected yet highly structured network of genetic diversity, revealing the existence of multiple "genetic worlds." These divides define multiple isolated groups of DNA vehicles drawing on distinct gene pools. Mathematical studies of the centralities of these worlds' subnetworks demonstrate that plasmids, not viruses, were key vectors of genetic exchange between bacterial chromosomes, both recently and in the past. Furthermore, network methodology introduces new ways of quantifying current sampling of genetic diversity.
关键词：evolution ; lateral gene transfer ; mobile genetic elements ; phages ; plasmids
