Correlation between bacterial G+C content, genome size and the G+C content of associated plasmids and bacteriophages.

Almpanis, Apostolos; Swain, Martin; Gatherer, Derek; McEwan, Neil

Abstract

Based on complete bacterial genome sequence data, we demonstrate a correlation between bacterial chromosome length and G+C content of the genome, with longer genomes having higher G+C contents. The correlation value decreases at shorter genome sizes where there is a wider spread of G+C values. However although significant (p < 0.001) the correlation value (Pearson R = 0.58) suggests that other factors also have a significant influence. A similar pattern was seen for plasmids; longer plasmids had higher G+C values, although the large number of shorter plasmids had a wide spread of G+C values. There was also a significant (p < 0.0001) correlation between G+C content of plasmids and the G+C content of their bacterial host. Conversely, the G+C content of bacteriophages tended to reduce with larger genome sizes and although there was a correlation between host genome G+C content and that of bacteriophage it was not as strong as that seen between plasmids and their hosts.

Citation

ALMPANIS, A., SWAIN, M., GATHERER, D. and MCEWAN, N. 2018. Correlation between bacterial G+C content, genome size and the G+C content of associated plasmids and bacteriophages. Microbial genomics [online], 4(4), article number 168. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000168

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 6, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Apr 1, 2018
• Publication Date: Apr 30, 2018
• Deposit Date: Mar 8, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 8, 2018
• Journal: Microbial genomics
• Electronic ISSN: 2057-5858
• Publisher: Microbiology Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 4
• Issue: 4
• Article Number: 168
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000168
• Keywords: Plasmids; Genome G+C content; Genome length; Bacteria
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2796