Phylogenetic correlation between the Type IV Secretion System and HIP1 suggest an adaptation for horizontal gene transfer conserved at the phylum level.

Authors

Ulises Rodriguez-Cruz, Gabriel Moreno-Hagelsieb, Cei Abreu-Goodger, Christian Martínez-Guerrero, Luis Delaye

Published in

Genome biology and evolution. Oct 30, 2026. Epub Oct 30, 2026.

Abstract

Most cyanobacterial genomes are rich in the GCGATCGC octamer, also known as Highly Iterated Palindrome 1 (HIP1). Despite its description over three decades ago, the biological function of this highly abundant sequence is only beginning to be elucidated. HIP1 is recognized by two DNA methylases, DmtA and DmtC, and is characterized by its evolutionary conservation and a quasi-periodic distribution within genomes. However, whether the phylogenetic distribution of HIP1 correlates with the presence of functional categories of protein families remains unknown. Here we investigated whether certain protein families share a phylogenetic distribution with this abundant palindromic sequence across cyanobacterial genomes. Our analysis revealed a strong phylogenetic correlation between several proteins of the Type IV secretion system (T4SS) and the abundance of HIP1. This finding aligns with recent discoveries demonstrating that HIP1 enhances DNA transformation in a methylation-dependent manner in two distinct cyanobacterial species. Consequently, we hypothesize that HIP1 function as a conserved adaptation for horizontal gene transfer (HGT) at the phylum level, potentially by serving as a DNA-uptake recognition sequence in cyanobacteria.

PMID:
42958917
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 30 Oct 2026.

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