Hijackers, hitchhikers, or co-drivers? The mysteries of microbial mobilizable genetic elements

This is a Preprint and has not been peer reviewed. This is version 1 of this Preprint.

Add a Comment

You must log in to post a comment.


Comments

There are no comments or no comments have been made public for this article.

Downloads

Download Preprint

Authors

Eduardo Rocha, Jorge Moura de Sousa, Manuel Ares Arroyo, Charles Coluzzi

Abstract

Mobile genetic elements shape microbial gene repertoires and population dynamics, but their mechanisms of horizontal transmission are often unknown. Recent results reveal that many, possibly most, bacterial mobile genetic elements require helper elements to transfer between (or within) genomes. We refer to these non-autonomous, albeit mobile, elements as Hitcher Genetic Elements (hitchers or HGEs). They could constitute a large fraction of pathogenicity and resistance genomic islands, whose mechanisms of transfer have remained enigmatic for decades. Together with their helper elements and their bacterial hosts, hitchers are in tripartite networks of interactions that evolve within a parasitism-mutualism continuum, with advantages and costs to each party. The emerging view of microbial genomes as networks of interacting mobile genetic elements brings to the fore many mysteries. Which elements are being moved, by whom, and how? How often are hitchers costly hyper-parasites or instead beneficial mutualists to their helpers and to the bacterial hosts? What is the evolutionary origin of hitchers? Are there key advantages associated with hitchers' lifestyle that justify their unexpected abundance across genomes? Or is their frequency largely the result of selfish spread across communities? Understanding the principles, origin, mechanisms, and impact of Hitcher Genetic Elements will lead to key insights in bacterial ecology and evolution.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.32942/X2R89M

Subjects

Bacteriology, Evolution, Genetics, Life Sciences, Molecular Biology

Keywords

Mobile genetic elements, plasmids, phages, Co-evolution, parasitism, horizontal gene transfer

Dates

Published: 2024-04-26 18:26

License

CC-BY Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International

Additional Metadata

Language:
English

Conflict of interest statement:
None

Data and Code Availability Statement:
Not applicable