Gene loss is a major contributor to the evolution of bacterial gene content. Gene loss may
occur as a result of shifts in environment leading to changes in the intensity and/or …

Large-scale genome arrangement plays an important role in bacterial genome evolution. A
substantial number of genes can be inserted into, deleted from, or rearranged within …

Background Orthologous genes are frequently presumed to perform similar functions.
However, outside of model organisms, this is rarely tested. One means of inferring changes …

Differences in gene content are a significant source of variability within species and have an
impact on phenotypic traits. However, little is known about the mechanisms responsible for …

Much of the observed variation among closely related bacterial genomes is attributable to
gains and losses of genes that are acquired horizontally as well as to gene duplications and …

Bacterial genomes have been viewed as collections of genes, with each gene and genome
evolving more-or-less independently through the acquisition of mutational changes. This …

The exploitation of bacterial genome sequences has so far provided a wealth of new
general information about the genetic diversity of bacteria, such as that of many pathogens …

Background The wealth of genomic data in bacteria is helping microbiologists understand
the factors involved in gene innovation. Among these, the expansion and reduction of gene …

Errors that occur during transcription have received much less attention than the mutations
that occur in DNA because transcription errors are not heritable and usually result in a very …

Prokaryotes demonstrate tremendous variation in gene content, even within individual
bacterial clones or lineages. This diversity is made possible by the ability of bacteria to …