Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Research Highlight
  • Published:

Bacterial physiology

Cropping up in an aerobic niche

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 14, page 2 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

C. puniceum produces characteristic pink pigments in infected potatoes. When the authors analysed extracts from potatoes that were experimentally inoculated with C. puniceum by high-performance liquid chromatography, they detected two peaks in the ultraviolet to red light spectrum corresponding to the metabolites responsible for this pigmentation. Using mass spectrometry they were able to identify one of these metabolites as clostrubin A, an aromatic polyketide that was previously found to be a product of the soil dwelling Clostridium beijerinckii. Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy showed that the second metabolite, clostrubin B, has an aromatic polyketide backbone in addition to a sugar-like linear side chain.

C. puniceum produces clostrubins to survive in oxygen-rich environments and to inhibit the growth of competing crop pathogenic bacteria

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Shabuer, G., Ishida, K., Pidot, S.J. et al. Plant pathogenic anaerobic bacteria use aromatic polyketides to access aerobic territory. Science 350, 670–674 (2015)

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors
  1. Ursula Hofer
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Hofer, U. Cropping up in an aerobic niche. Nat Rev Microbiol 14, 2 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2015.11

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrmicro.2015.11

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing Microbiology

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Microbiology newsletter — what matters in microbiology research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Microbiology