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What makes a megaplasmid?
- Source :
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
- Publication Year :
- 2022
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Abstract
- Naturally occurring plasmids come in different sizes. The smallest are less than a kilobase of DNA, while the largest can be over three orders of magnitude larger. Historically, research has tended to focus on smaller plasmids that are usually easier to isolate, manipulate and sequence, but with improved genome assemblies made possible by long-read sequencing, there is increased appreciation that very large plasmids—known as megaplasmids—are widespread, diverse, complex, and often encode key traits in the biology of their host microorganisms. Why are megaplasmids so big? What other features come with large plasmid size that could affect bacterial ecology and evolution? Are megaplasmids 'just' big plasmids, or do they have distinct characteristics? In this perspective, we reflect on the distribution, diversity, biology, and gene content of megaplasmids, providing an overview to these large, yet often overlooked, mobile genetic elements. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The secret lives of microbial mobile genetic elements’.
- Subjects :
- pangenome
megaplasmid
mobile genetic element
food and beverages
Articles
Biology
genome evolution
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Orders of magnitude (bit rate)
Plasmid
Evolutionary biology
plasmid
Horizontal gene transfer
horizontal gene transfer
General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
Review Articles
Plasmids
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....2a30b1ecb6f6a97beb6d9f3ab950cd12