Section: Genomics
Topic: Genetics/Genomics, Microbiology

RAREFAN: A webservice to identify REPINs and RAYTs in bacterial genomes

Fortmann-Grote, Carsten1 ; Irmer, Julia von1; Bertels, Frederic1  
1 Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Department of Microbial Population Biology, Plön, Germany

Corresponding author(s): Bertels, Frederic (bertels@evolbio.mpg.de)

10.24072/pcjournal.244 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 3 (2023), article no. e19.

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Compared to eukaryotes, repetitive sequences are rare in bacterial genomes and usually do not persist for long. Yet, there is at least one class of persistent prokaryotic mobile genetic elements: REPINs. REPINs are non-autonomous transposable elements replicated by single-copy transposases called RAYTs. REPIN-RAYT systems are mostly vertically inherited and have persisted in individual bacterial lineages for millions of years. Discovering and analyzing REPIN populations and their corresponding RAYT transposases in bacterial species can be rather laborious, hampering progress in understanding REPIN-RAYT biology and evolution. Here we present RAREFAN, a webservice that identifies REPIN populations and their corresponding RAYT transposase in a given set of bacterial genomes. We demonstrate RAREFAN’s capabilities by analyzing a set of 49 Stenotrophomonas maltophilia genomes, containing nine different REPIN-RAYT systems. We guide the reader through the process of identifying and analyzing REPIN-RAYT systems across S. maltophilia, highlighting erroneous associations between REPIN and RAYTs, and providing solutions on how to find correct associations. RAREFAN enables rapid, large-scale detection of REPINs and RAYTs, and provides insight into the fascinating world of intragenomic sequence populations in bacterial genomes. RAREFAN is available at http://rarefan.evolbio.mpg.de.

Published online:
DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.244
Type: Software tool
Mots-clés : sequence analysis, mobile genetic elements, bacterial genomes, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia

Fortmann-Grote, Carsten 1; Irmer, Julia von 1; Bertels, Frederic 1

1 Max-Planck-Institute for Evolutionary Biology, Department of Microbial Population Biology, Plön, Germany
License: CC-BY 4.0
Copyrights: The authors retain unrestricted copyrights and publishing rights 
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     title = {RAREFAN: {A} webservice to identify {REPINs} and {RAYTs} in bacterial genomes},
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Fortmann-Grote, Carsten; Irmer, Julia von; Bertels, Frederic. RAREFAN: A webservice to identify REPINs and RAYTs in bacterial genomes. Peer Community Journal, Volume 3 (2023), article  no. e19. doi : 10.24072/pcjournal.244. https://peercommunityjournal.org/articles/10.24072/pcjournal.244/

PCI peer reviews and recommendation, and links to data, scripts, code and supplementary information: 10.24072/pci.genomics.100166

Conflict of interest of the recommender and peer reviewers:
The recommender in charge of the evaluation of the article and the reviewers declared that they have no conflict of interest (as defined in the code of conduct of PCI) with the authors or with the content of the article.

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