Abstract
The Marine Roseobacter Clade (MRC) is a numerically and biogeochemically significant component of the bacterioplankton. Annotation of multiple MRC genomes has revealed that an abundance of carbon monoxide dehydrogenase (CODH) cox genes are present, subsequently implying a role for the MRC in marine CO cycling. The cox genes fall into two distinct forms based on sequence analysis of the coxL gene; forms I and II. The two forms are unevenly distributed across the MRC genomes. Most (18/29) of the MRC genomes contain only the putative form II coxL gene. Only 10 of the 29 MRC genomes analysed have both the putative form II and the definitive form I coxL. None have only the form I coxL. Genes previously shown to be required for post-translational maturation of the form I CODH enzyme are absent from the MRC genomes containing only form II. Subsequent analyses of a subset of nine MRC strains revealed that only MRC strains with both coxL forms are able to oxidise CO.
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Acknowledgements
This study relied on the genome sequences made publically available by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation (http://www.moore.org) through RoseoBase (www.roseobase.org). I particularly thank Shalabh Sharma and Mary Ann Moran at the Department of Marine Sciences, University of Georgia, Athens, USA for providing the 16S rRNA gene sequences used in Figure 1.
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Cunliffe, M. Correlating carbon monoxide oxidation with cox genes in the abundant Marine Roseobacter Clade. ISME J 5, 685–691 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2010.170
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ismej.2010.170
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