Fig. 5: Recombination frequencies in A. baumannii populations and the model of stepwise acquisition of ARGs and virulence to Clade 2.5.6.
From: Emergence and global spread of a dominant multidrug-resistant clade within Acinetobacter baumannii
a The bubble plot of estimated recombination levels (as conflicting quartets per gene per genome; CQPP; X-axis) versus the Simpson’s diversity index (SDI; Y-axis) of the continental distributions for each IC/CC. The sizes of the bubbles are proportional to the number of genomes in each IC/CC. The dashed line in CQPP of 1.5 specifies the separation of high-recombination CCs (hrCCs, n = 11) and the remaining (n = 30). b The box plots compare SDIs (left) and ARG numbers (right) between hrCCs and other IC/CCs, showing 0.74 for hrCCs vs 0.55 for other IC/CCs in the left panel, and 7.5 for hrCCs vs 15.3 for other IC/CCs in the right panel (**p < 0.01; Wilcox-test). Whiskers, minimum, and maximum of the data. c The recombination network in A. baumannii. The nodes show major IC/CCs color-coded by their associated CQPP values, and the edges show frequencies of convergent recombination between two IC/CCs, measured by numbers of convergent genes per genome. The hrCCs were grouped in the middle and surrounded by a dotted circle. The IC2 and IC1 were highlighted by red halos. d The simplified pattern of stepwise evolution in the IC2. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
