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PMID: 17933912 Published · ppublish English Comparative Study Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

Conservation of the chitin utilization pathway in the Vibrionaceae.

Applied and environmental microbiology ·Vol. 74 ·No. 1 ·2008-01-00 ·Pages 44-51

Hunt DE, Gevers D, Vahora NM, Polz MF

Abstract

Vibrionaceae are regarded as important marine chitin degraders, and attachment to chitin regulates important biological functions; yet, the degree of chitin pathway conservation in Vibrionaceae is unknown. Here, a core chitin degradation pathway is proposed based on comparison of 19 Vibrio and Photobacterium genomes with a detailed metabolic map assembled for V. cholerae from published biochemical, genomic, and transcriptomic results. Further, to assess whether chitin degradation is a conserved property of Vibrionaceae, a set of 54 strains from 32 taxa were tested for the ability to grow on various forms of chitin. All strains grew on N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), the monomer of chitin. The majority of isolates grew on alpha (crab shell) and beta (squid pen) chitin and contained chitinase A (chiA) genes. chiA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis suggest that this gene is a good indicator of chitin metabolism but appears subject to horizontal gene transfer and duplication. Overall, chitin metabolism appears to be a core function of Vibrionaceae, but individual pathway components exhibit dynamic evolutionary histories.

MeSH Terms
Acetylglucosamine/metabolism Bacterial Proteins/genetics Chitin/metabolism Chitinases/genetics Conserved Sequence DNA, Bacterial/chemistry,genetics Metabolic Networks and Pathways/genetics Molecular Sequence Data Phylogeny Sequence Analysis, DNA Vibrionaceae/genetics,growth & development,metabolism
Chemicals
Bacterial Proteins DNA, Bacterial Chitin Chitinases Acetylglucosamine
Authors & Affiliations
4 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Hunt Dana E
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 48-417, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
Gevers Dirk
Vahora Nisha M
Polz Martin F
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Article Info
Journal
Applied and environmental microbiology
Abbr.
Appl Environ Microbiol
ISSN
1098-5336
DOI
10.1128/AEM.01412-07
Published
2008-01-00
Epub
2007-00-12
Pages
44-51
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
7605801
PMCID
PMC2223224
Subset
IM
Databases
GENBANK
EU177043, EU177044, EU177045, EU177046, EU177047, EU177048, EU177049, EU177050, EU177051, EU177052, EU177053, EU177054, EU177055, EU177056, EU177057, EU177058, EU177059, EU177060, EU177061, EU177062, EU177063, EU177064, EU177065, EU177066, EU177067, EU177068, EU177069, EU177070, EU177071, EU177072, EU177073, EU177074, EU177075, EU177076, EU177077, EU177078, EU177079, EU177080, EU177081, EU177082, EU177083, EU177084, EU177085, EU177086, EU177087, EU177088, EU177089, EU177090, EU177091, EU177092, EU177093, EU177094
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1128/AEM.01412-07 PMC Full Text View journal details
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