Journal
PLOS GENETICS
Volume 7, Issue 12, Pages -Publisher
PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1002430
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Funding
- National Science Foundation [EF-0412186, EF-0728827, MCB-0622277]
- DOE BioEnergy Science Center
- Genomic Science Program
- Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the DOE Office of Science
- ANR [ANR-08-BLAN-0098]
- CNRS Institut Ecology et Environnement (France)
- Australian Research Council [DP0771664]
- Australian Research Council [DP0771664] Funding Source: Australian Research Council
- Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) [ANR-08-BLAN-0098] Funding Source: Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR)
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Fossil records indicate that life appeared in marine environments, similar to 3.5 billion years ago (Gyr) and transitioned to terrestrial ecosystems nearly 2.5 Gyr. Sequence analysis suggests that hydrobacteria and terrabacteria might have diverged as early as 3 Gyr. Bacteria of the genus Azospirillum are associated with roots of terrestrial plants; however, virtually all their close relatives are aquatic. We obtained genome sequences of two Azospirillum species and analyzed their gene origins. While most Azospirillum house-keeping genes have orthologs in its close aquatic relatives, this lineage has obtained nearly half of its genome from terrestrial organisms. The majority of genes encoding functions critical for association with plants are among horizontally transferred genes. Our results show that transition of some aquatic bacteria to terrestrial habitats occurred much later than the suggested initial divergence of hydro-and terrabacterial clades. The birth of the genus Azospirillum approximately coincided with the emergence of vascular plants on land.
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