Accurate Localization of the Integration Sites of Two Genomic Islands at Single-Nucleotide Resolution in the Genome of Bacillus cereus ATCC 10987

Figure 1

The cumulative GC profile for the genomes of B. cereus ATCC 10987 and B. cereus ATCC 14579. An up jump in the cumulative GC profile indicates a sharp decrease in GC content. By comparing the cumulative GC profiles for the two closed related genomes, it is shown that most parts of the two genomes overlap, whereas two jumps (marked in red) occur in the cumulative GC profile for the genomes of B. cereus ATCC 10987, suggesting that these two regions have a relatively sharp decrease in GC content. In addition, genomic sequences surrounding these two regions are highly conserved between the two genomes. Furthermore, these two regions also have other genomic-island specific features, such as the presence of Tn7 transposon. These lines of evidence suggest that the two regions are horizontally transferred genomic islands. Refer to text for detail. In the cumulative GC profile of the genome of B. cereus ATCC 14579, the regions that correspond to the integration sites of genomic islands are indicated by arrows.