TY - JOUR
T1 - Estimating the relative contributions of mutation and recombination to clonal diversification
T2 - A comparison between Neisseria meningitidis and Streptococcus pneumoniae
AU - Feil, Edward J.
AU - Enright, Mark C.
AU - Spratt, Brian G.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was funded by the Wellcome Trust. We thank John Maynard Smith for helpful discussions.
PY - 2000/7/8
Y1 - 2000/7/8
N2 - Both Neisseria meningitidis and Streptococcus pneumoniae are naturally transformable species and are known to be freely recombining in the wild. Large multilocus sequence typing (MLST) datasets have been generated for these species. Here we outline an approach which exploits these data sets in order to quantify the extent of recombination, thus enabling meaningful comparisons between the two species. Two parameters are estimated; the rate at which recombination changes alleles, compared to point mutation, and the rate at which recombination changes individual nucleotide sites, compared to point mutation. Estimates for the former parameter are 4:1 in the meningococcus (i.e. alleles are changed four-fold more frequently by recombination than by mutation), and 10:1 in the pneumococcus. However, estimates for the latter parameter are at least 80:1 in the meningococcus (i.e. an individual nucleotide site is at least 80-fold more likely to change by recombination than by mutation) and 50:1 in the pneumococcus. These data imply that recombination events, compared to mutational events, may be more common in the pneumococcus than in the meningococcus. However, because it is a more diverse species, each recombinational exchange in the meningococcus results in more nucleotide changes on average. (C) 2000 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.
AB - Both Neisseria meningitidis and Streptococcus pneumoniae are naturally transformable species and are known to be freely recombining in the wild. Large multilocus sequence typing (MLST) datasets have been generated for these species. Here we outline an approach which exploits these data sets in order to quantify the extent of recombination, thus enabling meaningful comparisons between the two species. Two parameters are estimated; the rate at which recombination changes alleles, compared to point mutation, and the rate at which recombination changes individual nucleotide sites, compared to point mutation. Estimates for the former parameter are 4:1 in the meningococcus (i.e. alleles are changed four-fold more frequently by recombination than by mutation), and 10:1 in the pneumococcus. However, estimates for the latter parameter are at least 80:1 in the meningococcus (i.e. an individual nucleotide site is at least 80-fold more likely to change by recombination than by mutation) and 50:1 in the pneumococcus. These data imply that recombination events, compared to mutational events, may be more common in the pneumococcus than in the meningococcus. However, because it is a more diverse species, each recombinational exchange in the meningococcus results in more nucleotide changes on average. (C) 2000 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.
KW - Neisseria meningitidis
KW - Recombination
KW - Streptococcus pneumoniae
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0033865030&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/S0923-2508(00)00168-6
DO - 10.1016/S0923-2508(00)00168-6
M3 - Article
C2 - 10961460
AN - SCOPUS:0033865030
VL - 151
SP - 465
EP - 469
JO - Research in Microbiology
JF - Research in Microbiology
SN - 0923-2508
IS - 6
ER -