Evolutionary rewiring of bacterial regulatory networks

Taylor, T., Mulley, G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0650-478X, McGuffin, L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4501-4767, Johnson, L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0006-1511, Brockhurst, M., Arseneault, T., Silby, M. and Jackson, R. (2015) Evolutionary rewiring of bacterial regulatory networks. Microbial Cell, 2 (7). pp. 256-258. ISSN 2311-2638 doi: 10.15698/mic2015.07.215

Abstract/Summary

Bacteria have evolved complex regulatory networks that enable integration of multiple intracellular and extracellular signals to coordinate responses to environmental changes. However, our knowledge of how regulatory systems function and evolve is still relatively limited. There is often extensive homology between components of different networks, due to past cycles of gene duplication, divergence, and horizontal gene transfer, raising the possibility of cross-talk or redundancy. Consequently, evolutionary resilience is built into gene networks – homology between regulators can potentially allow rapid rescue of lost regulatory function across distant regions of the genome. In our recent study [Taylor, et al. Science (2015), 347(6225)] we find that mutations that facilitate cross-talk between pathways can contribute to gene network evolution, but that such mutations come with severe pleiotropic costs. Arising from this work are a number of questions surrounding how this phenomenon occurs.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/40686
Identification Number/DOI	10.15698/mic2015.07.215
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Biomedical Sciences Life Sciences > School of Biological Sciences > Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
Publisher	Shared Science
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