title: Organisation of the S10, spc and alpha ribosomal protein gene clusters in prokaryotic genomes.
abstract: Although it is well known that there is no long range colinearity in gene order in bacterial genomes, it is thought that there are several regions that are under strong structural constraints during evolution, in which gene order is extremely conserved. One such region is the str locus, containing the S10-spc-alpha operons. These operons contain genes coding for ribosomal proteins and for a number of housekeeping genes. We compared the organisation of these gene clusters in 111 sequenced prokaryotic genomes (99 bacterial and 12 archaeal genomes). We also compared the organisation to the phylogeny based on 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences and the sequences of the ribosomal proteins L22, L16 and S14. Our data indicate that there is much variation in gene order and content in these gene clusters, both in bacterial as well as in archaeal genomes. Our data indicate that differential gene loss has occurred on multiple occasions during evolution. We also noted several discrepancies between phylogenetic trees based on 16S rRNA gene sequences and sequences of ribosomal proteins L16, L22 and S14, suggesting that horizontal gene transfer did play a significant role in the evolution of the S10-spc-alpha gene clusters.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorium voor Microbiologie, Universiteit Gent, K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Gent, Belgium. tom.coenye@ugent.be
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Coenye
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vandamme
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D019295:Computational Biology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D023061:Gene Order; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D020459:Genes, rRNA; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D005810:Multigene Family; D009876:Operon; D010802:Phylogeny; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012269:Ribosomal Proteins / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D012269:Ribosomal Proteins; C027937:ribosomal protein L16; C029537:ribosomal protein S10; C039747:ribosomal protein S14