Research Briefing

Published: 19 June 2024

Nature Biotechnology

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We developed SynTracker, a tool to track conspecific microbial strains using genome synteny. SynTracker is sensitive to genomic structural variation but not to single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Combining SynTracker with methods for tracking strains using SNP profiles, we were able to detect species evolving by accumulating predominantly SNPs or predominantly structural variants.

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Fig. 1: The SynTracker pipeline.

References

Van Rossum, T., Ferretti, P., Maistrenko, O. M. & Bork, P. Diversity within species: interpreting strains in microbiomes. Nat. Rev. Microbiol. 18, 491–506 (2020). A review on conspecific strains in microbiomes.

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This is a summary of: Enav, H., Paz, I. & Ley, R. E. Strain tracking in complex microbiomes using synteny analysis reveals per-species modes of evolution. Nat. Biotechnol. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-024-02276-2 (2024).

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Tracking gene order provides a new perspective on intraspecific evolution in microbiotas.
Nat Biotechnol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-024-02277-1

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Published: 19 June 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41587-024-02277-1

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