Comments(1)

Compositional variation between genes is normal

Donald Forsdyke   (25 February 2008)  Queen's University, Canada

The pioneering studies of Akiyoshi Wada and colleagues in Japan have shown unequivocally that, while an organism's overall base composition (GC%) tends to be species-specific, the base compositions of individual genes in that organism are widely distributed around the average for its species (reviewed in Forsdyke, 2004, J. Biol. Sys. 12, 261-271). This can be explained in terms of the genetic physiology of the organism without invoking horizontal gene transfer. The delightful paper of Monier and colleagues gives welcome support to this view. They should note, however, that some of the viral genomes they have studied contain low complexity sequences (e.g. the EBNA1 gene of Epstein-Barr Virus). For more, please see my textbook "Evolutionary Bioinformatics" (Springer, New York, 2006).

Competing interests

None declared

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