Exploring short k-mer profiles in cells and mobile elements from Archaea highlights the major influence of both the ecological niche and evolutionary history

Table 1 Sets of 10 most discriminant 5-mers identified by PLS-DA

	Archaeal cells	Archaeal mobile elements
Halophiles high frequency 5-mers	CGAAC, GTTCG, ACCGA, GACCG, CGGTC, TCGGT, GTGAC, GTCAC, TCGAC	GTTCG, ACCGA, TTCGA, CGAAC TCGAA, TCGGT, TCGGA, CGAGT, TCCGA, ATCGA
Halophiles low frequency 5-mers	TGAAG	–
Hyperthermophiles high frequency 5-mers	TCAAC, GTTGA, AGCTT, AAGCT	TTTGG, GAGCT, AGCTC, AAGCT, AGCTT, TTGAG, (TTGGA), GCCAA, (TCCAA)
Non-hyperthermophiles low frequency 5-mers	TCAGA, TCTGA, TCAGT, ACTGA, CAGAT, ATCTG	CGAAT

Bold characters: in each table line, most discriminant 5-mers shared between cells and mobile elements, for a considered niche category. In parenthesis: statistically non-significant frequency differences based on a t-test (p ≥ 0.01), in a considered niche category

ISSN: 1471-2164