Comparative genomic study of the symbiotic genes of rhizobia with legumes

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26660057
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Applied microbiology
• Research Institution: The University of Tokyo
• Principal Investigator: Aoki Seishiro 東京大学, 大学院理学系研究科(理学部), 特任研究員 (10334301)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 伊藤 元己 東京大学, 大学院総合文化研究科, 教授 (00193524)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: 分子進化 / 共生 / 窒素固定 / 根粒 / 水平移行 / 平行進化 / 遺伝子重複 / 機能進化

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The symbiosis of nitrogen-fixing bacteria with plants is a widespread and important phenomenon in ecosystems. The genes for this symbiosis have ever been found with genetic analysis. It has been thought that the symbiotic genes passed though different evolutionary pathways from the other housekeeping genes and have characteristic features in the molecular evolution. We searched for these genes using the analysis of microbial comparative genomics and revealed that several symbiotic genes might have originated from the gene duplication of the housekeeping genes in bacteria. We also found that new evolutionary phenomena such as parallel evolution of symbiosis function, convergent evolution of gene order, and gene conversion in several symbiotic genes.

Free Research Field

進化学