Accretion of novel genetic elements reverses genome erosion and enables host-switching in the deep sea
Endosymbiont genome erosion is driven by relaxed selection and isolation from free-living relatives' gene pools, and can be stalled by horizontal transmission events, but it remains unknown whether genome erosion can be reversed. The chemosynthetic gammaproteobacterial symbionts of deep-sea clams in the family Vesicomyidae offer a useful test case for whether eroded symbiont genomes can acquire…
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