Discordant population structure among rhizobium divided genomes and
their legume hosts
Abstract
Symbiosis often occurs between partners with distinct life history
characteristics and dispersal mechanisms. Many bacterial symbionts have
genomes comprised of multiple replicons with distinct rates of evolution
and horizontal transmission. Such differences might drive differences in
population structure between hosts and symbionts and among the elements
of the divided genomes of bacterial symbionts. These differences might,
in turn, shape the evolution of symbiotic interactions and bacterial
evolution. Here we use whole genome resequencing of a
hierarchically-structured sample of 191 strains of Sinorhizobium
meliloti collected from 21 locations in southern Europe to characterize
population structures of this bacterial symbiont and its host plant
Medicago truncatula. Sinorhizobium meliloti genomes showed high local
(within-site) variation and little isolation by distance. This was
particularly true for the two symbiosis elements pSymA and pSymB, which
have population structures that are similar to each other, but distinct
from both the bacterial chromosome and the host plant. The differences
in population structure may result from among-replicon differences in
the extent of horizontal gene transfer, although given limited
recombination of the chromosome, different levels of purifying or
positive selection may also contribute to among-replicon differences.
Discordant population structure between hosts and symbionts indicates
that geographically and genetically distinct host populations in
different parts of the range might interact with genetically similar
symbionts, potentially minimizing local specialization.