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A comparative study of bchG from green photosynthetic bacteria

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Abstract

The gene bchG, coding for bacteriochlorophyll a synthase from a variety of green sulfur bacteria and the filamentous anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria, Chloroflexus aurantiacus, Chloronema sp., and Roseiflexus castenholzii HL08, was partially sequenced and compared. The deduced amino acid consensus sequences for green sulfur bacteria and green filamentous anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria were found to belong to the UbiA enzyme family of polyprenyltransferases with the most similar sequences being those of photosynthetic organisms. All deduced amino acid sequences showed a highly conserved region, which includes the motif DRXXD, characteristic of polyprenyltransferases, which was extended to DREVDAINEP for green sulfur bacteria. Neighbor-joining analysis of a protein similitude matrix displayed a relatively high distance between green sulfur bacteria and the other groups. Sequences from green sulfur bacteria were more closely related to those of purple bacteria than to those of filamentous anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria. In addition, internal grouping within green sulfur bacteria was congruent regarding taxonomic features including cell shape, presence of gas vacuoles and NaCl requirement. In addition to bchlG, another gene encoding for a second chlorophyll synthetase, previously tentatively identified as chlG, was also found in Chlorobium tepidum, showing the highest similarities with polyprenyltransferases from chlorophyll-a-containing organisms.

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Abbreviations

BChl:

Bacteriochlorophyll

Chl:

Chlorophyll

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Acknowledgements

Preliminary sequence data from the genome of Chlorobium tepidum were obtained from The Institute for Genomic Research website at http://www.tigr.org. We are thankful to Drs. Lluís Bañeras and Jordi Figueras for their help in the design of the degenerate primers, to Dr. Carles Borrego and Dr. Juan Arellano for critically reading the manuscript, and to Dr. Ruth Airs for assistance with the English language. We also wish to thank the Area of Genetics of the Department of Biology (University of Girona) and the Research Services of the University of Barcelona for sequencing facilities. Thanks are due to Drs. Beverly Pierson (University of Puget Sound, USA) and Satoshi Hanada (National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Japan )for providing genomic DNA of Roseiflexus castenholzii and Chloroflexus aurantiacus, respectively, and especially to Prof. Donald A. Bryant (Pennsylvania State University, USA) for kindly providing information on bacteriochlorophyll synthetases function assignment. Thanks are also due to Prof. Robert E. Blankenship (Arizona State University, USA) for help in the discussion. This work was partially funded by a TMR project of the European Union (IVth frame program), contract number FMRX-CT96–0081.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Molecular Microbial Ecology, Institute of Aquatic Ecology, University of Girona, Campus de Montilivi, 17071 , Girona , Spain

    L. Jesús Garcia-Gil & Xavier Fuentes-Garcia

  2. Institut für Genetik und Mikrobiologie, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität. München, Maria-Ward-Strasse 1a, 80638 , Munich, Germany

    Frederic B. Gich

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  1. L. Jesús Garcia-Gil
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  2. Frederic B. Gich
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  3. Xavier Fuentes-Garcia
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Correspondence to L. Jesús Garcia-Gil.

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Garcia-Gil, L.J., Gich, F.B. & Fuentes-Garcia, X. A comparative study of bchG from green photosynthetic bacteria. Arch Microbiol 179, 108–115 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-002-0506-3

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