Research
Characterization and modeling of the Haemophilus influenzae core and supragenomes based on the complete genomic sequences of Rd and 12 clinical nontypeable strains
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* Corresponding authors: Fen Z Hu fhu@wpahs.org - Garth D Ehrlich gehrlich@wpahs.org
Genome Biology 2007, 8:R103 doi:10.1186/gb-2007-8-6-r103
Supra-genome vs. pangenome
David Ussery (2007-06-13 15:55) Center for Biological Sequence analysis, Technical Uni. Denmark
What is the difference between the "Supra-genome" mentioned in this article, and the "pangenome" first used to describe several sequenced Streptococcus agalactiae genomes, back in 2005? I can find the phrase "pan-genome" 16 times in PubMed, but "Supra-genome" is found only 3 times - once in this paper, and twice other by papers from the same group. Can't we reach an agreement on what to call all the combined genes in a set of sequenced genomes from the same species?
Why should it be called "pan-genome" for Burkholderia, Campylobacter, E. coli, Streptococcus, and Vibrio, but for Haemophilus it is the "supra-genome"?
Competing interests
Along with Tim Read, I wrote an editorial overview with the title "Opening the PanGenomics Box" in 2006 for Current Opinion in Microbiology.
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