title: Functional profiling of cyanobacterial genomes and its role in ecological adaptations.
abstract: With the availability of complete genome sequences of many cyanobacterial species, it is becoming feasible to study the broad prospective of the environmental adaptation and the overall changes at transcriptional and translational level in these organisms. In the evolutionary phase, niche-specific competitive forces have resulted in specific features of the cyanobacterial genomes. In this study, functional composition of the 84 different cyanobacterial genomes and their adaptations to different environments was examined by identifying the genomic composition for specific cellular processes, which reflect their genomic functional profile and ecological adaptation. It was identified that among cyanobacterial genomes, metabolic genes have major share over other categories and differentiation of genomic functional profile was observed for the species inhabiting different habitats. The cyanobacteria of freshwater and other habitats accumulate large number of poorly characterized genes. Strain specific functions were also reported in many cyanobacterial members, of which an important feature was the occurrence of phage-related sequences. From this study, it can be speculated that habitat is one of the major factors in giving the shape of functional composition of cyanobacterial genomes towards their ecological adaptations.
authors.affiliation: ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Kushmaur, Maunath Bhanjan 275103, India.
authors.forename: Ratna
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Prabha
authors.affiliation: ICAR-National Bureau of Agriculturally Important Microorganisms, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Kushmaur, Maunath Bhanjan 275103, India.
authors.forename: Dhananjaya P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Department of Biotechnology, TERI University, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: Pallavi
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Somvanshi
authors.affiliation: Center for Agricultural Bioinformatics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, Library Avenue, New Delhi 110012, India.
authors.forename: Anil
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rai
keywords: COG categorization; Cyanobacteria; Ecological adaptation; Functional profiling; Genome evolution