Fig. 3: Host association and possession of flagella are negatively correlated, and host-associated bacteria have a higher rate of flagella loss.

a 16 S phylogeny for strains in the PATRIC representative dataset. We only show Firmicutes here as an example because the full phylogeny is too large to show effectively. Host association was determined using metadata from the PATRIC and BacDive databases. Flagella status was determined by identified conserved motifs of flagellin genes. b Transitions between the four states in the data set, with and the posterior distributions of the transition rates calculated using Bayestraits¹¹¹. c Posterior distribution of flagella loss rates for host-associated and environmental bacteria. Our model provides evidence for a significant difference in the rate of flagella loss between host-associated bacteria and environmental bacteria. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.