0000000000395741
AUTHOR
Lars Paulin
Related haloarchaeal pleomorphic viruses contain different genome types
Archaeal viruses have been the subject of recent interest due to the diversity discovered in their virion architectures. Recently, a new group of haloarchaeal pleomorphic viruses has been discovered. It is distinctive in terms of the virion morphology and different genome types (ssDNA/dsDNA) harboured by rather closely related representatives. To date there are seven isolated viruses belonging to this group. Most of these share a cluster of five conserved genes, two of which encode major structural proteins. Putative proviruses and proviral remnants containing homologues of the conserved gene cluster were also identified suggesting a long-standing relationship of these viruses with their ho…
Evidence for Natural Horizontal Transfer of the pcpB Gene in the Evolution of Polychlorophenol-Degrading Sphingomonads
ABSTRACT The chlorophenol degradation pathway in Sphingobium chlorophenolicum is initiated by the pcpB gene product, pentachlorophenol-4-monooxygenase. The distribution of the gene was studied in a phylogenetically diverse group of polychlorophenol-degrading bacteria isolated from contaminated groundwater in Kärkölä, Finland. All the sphingomonads isolated were shown to share pcpB gene homologs with 98.9 to 100% sequence identity. The gene product was expressed when the strains were induced by 2,3,4,6-tetrachlorophenol. A comparative analysis of the 16S rDNA and pcpB gene trees suggested that a recent horizontal transfer of the pcpB gene was involved in the evolution of the catabolic pat…