Gene amelioration demonstrated: the journey of nascent genes in bacteria

Gene amelioration is the hypothesis that genes acquired via lateral gene transfer will, over time, acquire the molecular characteristics of the host genome. Species for which multiple strains have been sequenced permit a demonstration that this hypothesis is correct. We use 7 sequenced genomes of Streptococcus pyogenes and 6 sequenced genomes of Staphylococcus aureus to illustrate the action of amelioration on these genomes.