Spread of genomic islands between clinical and environmental strains

摘要

The genome of a bacterium consists of a core that is common to all strains of a taxon and an accessory part that varies within and among clones of a taxon. The accessory genome represents the flexible gene pool that frequently undergoes acquisition and loss of genetic information and hence plays an important role for the adaptive evolution of bacteria (Dobrindt et al., 2004). The flexible gene pool is made up of accessory elements such as bacteriophages, plasmids, IS elements, transposons, conjugative transposons, integrons and genomic islands (GEIs).