Abstract:

Bacterium, one of the most ancient organisms, has great diversity and obvious differentiation in phenotype among different strains and even in different lines of one strain. The hereditary basis of differentiation is due to the genomic genetic information difference among different strains. In order to illustrate the individual genetic diversity and explore the hereditary basis of individual phylogenesis and phenotype difference, the concept of pan-genome is put forward. The causes of hereditary diversity of bacteria, the research strategy of pan-genome and its application in bacterial research are reviewed in this paper.

Key words: pan-genome, multiple strain sequencing, genetic diversity, core genome, accessory genome