BioProject

Lactobacillus is an important group of bacteria that is used in food preservation, food preparation and probiotics. More...

Lactobacillus is an important group of bacteria that is used in food preservation, food preparation and probiotics. The group is unusually diverse with individual species showing considerable variation in their functional properties; numerous studies have shown that this variation is also present across strains within Lactobacillus species, leading to strain-dependent health benefits. Lactobacillus salivarius is one of about 200 species (including subspecies) within this group and previous literature has revealed its role as a potential probiotic. Our study uses a dataset of 42 L. salivarius strains and a comparative genomic approach to define genes that each strain has in common and genes that show presence-absence distributions across the strains. Bacteria are subject to gene loss as well as gene acquisition through several mechanisms (collectively known as horizontal gene transfer or HGT). These processes lead to considerable variation in gene content within a species, which is further promoted by the presence of independently replicating sequences (replicons) called plasmids that are often present in bacterial cells and can be transferred between cells in close proximity. A description of functional diversity across L. salivarius and its distribution over the replicons will increase current knowledge and possible exploitation of the variation found in Lactobacillus. Less...