Progress of Bacillus subtilis genome reduction. (A) Schematic overview on the important functions to be conserved in a genome-reduced strain. The pie chart indicates functional distribution of the remaining 64% of genes in the genome-reduced strain PG10. (B) Localization of the individual deletions in the reference strain B. subtilis Δ6, the last common ancestor IIG-Bs27-47-24, and the analyzed strains PG10 and PS38. Each bar indicates a deleted genomic region. The locations of the deletions refer to the B. subtilis 168 genome (NC_000964). (C) Genealogy of the genome-reduced strains. The number of deletions and the genome sizes of important intermediate strains are depicted.
