The Variability of the 16S rRNA Gene in Bacterial Genomes and Its Consequences for Bacterial Community Analyses

0423805 - MBÚ 2014 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Větrovský, Tomáš - Baldrian, Petr
The Variability of the 16S rRNA Gene in Bacterial Genomes and Its Consequences for Bacterial Community Analyses.
PLoS ONE. Roč. 8, č. 2 (2013). ISSN 1932-6203. E-ISSN 1932-6203
R&D Projects: GA MŠMT LD12048; GA MŠMT LD12050
Institutional support: RVO:61388971
Keywords : OPERON COPY NUMBER * MICROBIAL COMMUNITIES * MOLECULAR MARKERS
Subject RIV: EE - Microbiology, Virology
Impact factor: 3.534, year: 2013

16S ribosomal RNA currently represents the most important target of study in bacterial ecology. Its use for the description of bacterial diversity is, however, limited by the presence of variable copy numbers in bacterial genomes and sequence variation within closely related taxa or within a genome. Here we use the information from sequenced bacterial genomes to explore the variability of 16S rRNA sequences and copy numbers at various taxonomic levels and apply it to estimate bacterial genome and DNA abundances. In total, 7,081 16S rRNA sequences were in silico extracted from 1,690 available bacterial genomes (1-15 per genome). While there are several phyla containing low 16S rRNA copy numbers, in certain taxa, e. g., the Firmicutes and Gammaproteobacteria, the variation is large. Genome sizes are more conserved at all tested taxonomic levels than 16S rRNA copy numbers. Only a minority of bacterial genomes harbors identical 16S rRNA gene copies, and sequence diversity increases with increasing copy numbers
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0229961