Publication Date:
2015-05-30
Description:
OrthoAlign, an algorithm for the gene order alignment problem (alignment of orthologs), accounting for most genome-wide evolutionary events such as duplications, losses, rearrangements, and substitutions, was presented. OrthoAlign was used in a phylogenetic framework to infer the evolution of transfer RNA repertoires of 50 fully sequenced bacteria in the Bacillus genus. A prevalence of gene duplications and losses over rearrangement events was observed. The average rate of duplications inferred in Bacillus was 24 times lower than the one reported in Escherichia coli , whereas the average rates of losses and inversions were both 12 times lower. These rates were extremely low, suggesting a strong selective pressure acting on tRNA gene repertoires in Bacillus . An exhaustive analysis of the type, location, distribution, and length of evolutionary events was provided, together with ancestral configurations. OrthoAlign can be downloaded at: http://www.iro.umontreal.ca/~mabrouk/ .
Print ISSN:
0737-4038
Electronic ISSN:
1537-1719
Topics:
Biology
