title: Co-evolution of  genomic islands and their bacterial hosts revealed through phylogenetic  analyses of 17 groups of homologous genomic islands.
abstract: Horizontal  gene transfer is an important mechanism for the evolution of microbial genomes,  and many horizontal gene transfer events are facilitated by genomic islands  (GIs). Until now, few reports have provided evidence for the co-evolution of  horizontally transferred genes and their hosts. We obtained 17 groups of  homologous GIs, all of which appear in 8 or more bacterial strains of the same  species or genus. Using phylogenetic analyses, we found that the topological  structure of a distance tree based on the proteins of each group of homologous  GIs was consistent with that based on the complete proteomes of the hosts. This  result clearly indicates that GIs and their bacterial hosts have co-evolved. In  addition to presenting and providing evidence for a novel concept, i.e., the  co-evolution of GIs and their bacterial hosts, we also describe a new and  interesting detail for the phylogenetic analysis of horizontally transferred  genes: consistent phylogenetic trees can be obtained by focusing on homologous  GIs despite the commonly accepted theory that the phylogenies of horizontally  transferred sequences and host organisms should be inconsistent.
authors.affiliation: School of Life Science and Technology, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China. fbguo@uestc.edu.cn
authors.forename: F-B
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: X L
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ding
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Rao
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D044404:Genomic Islands / Q000235:genetics*; D054884:Host-Pathogen Interactions / Q000235:genetics*; D010802:Phylogeny; D020543:Proteome / Q000235:genetics; D013211:Staphylococcus aureus / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D020543:Proteome