Insight Into the Evolution of Symbiosis in the Cupriavidus Genus: Highly Conserved Symbiotic Island and a Patchy Phylogenetic Distribution.

Symbiotic Cupriavidus strains form five distinct evolutionary lineages, with a highly conserved symbiotic island but very low (mega)plasmid conservation.

• Why it matters: Beta-rhizobia symbiosis evolution has been studied mainly in Paraburkholderia, leaving the origin and history of nitrogen-fixing capabilities in Cupriavidus unclear.
• What they did: Whole-genome phylogenetic reconstructions and comparative genomics were used to map symbiotic diversity and analyze nod-nif-fix cluster conservation across lineages and their plasmids.
• The result: The symbiotic island shows high synteny and sequence conservation consistent with a single ancestral acquisition, while plasmids are highly variable, implying a mosaic horizontal transfer pattern and highlighting South America as a hotspot.

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