Title

Naturally Mosaic Operons for Secondary Metabolite Biosynthesis: Variability and Putative Horizontal Transfer of Discrete Catalytic Domains of the Epothilone Polyketide Synthase Locus

Authors

Jose V. Lopez, Harbor Branch Oceanographic InstitutionFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2004

Publication Title

Molecular Genetics and Genomics

Keywords

Horizontal gene transfer, Epothilones, Polyketide, Phylogenetics, Operon

ISSN

1617-4615

Volume

270

Issue/No.

5

First Page

420

Last Page

431

Abstract

A putative instance of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) involving adjacent, discrete β-ketoacyl synthase (KS), acyl carrier protein (ACP) and nonribosomal peptide synthase (NRPS) domains of the epothilone Type I polyketide biosynthetic gene cluster from the myxobacterium Sorangium cellulosom was identified using molecular phylogenetics and sequence analyses. The specific KS domain of the module EPO B fails to cluster phylogenetically with other epothilone KS sequences present at this locus, in contrast to what is typically observed in many other Type I polyketide synthase (PKS) biosynthetic loci. Furthermore, the GC content of the epoB KS, epoA ACP and NRPS domains differs significantly from the base composition of other epothilone domain sequences. In addition, the putatively transferred epothilone loci are located near previously identified transposon-like sequences. Lastly, comparison with other KS loci revealed another possible case of horizontal transfer of secondary metabolite genes in the genusPseudomonas. This study emphasizes the use of several lines of concordant evidence (phylogenetics, base composition, transposon sequences) to infer the evolutionary history of particular gene and enzyme sequences, and the results support the idea that genes coding for adaptive traits, e.g. defensive natural products, may be prone to transposition between divergent prokaryotic taxa and genomes.

Comments

©Springer-Verlag 2003

NSUWorks Citation

Lopez, Jose V.. 2004. "Naturally Mosaic Operons for Secondary Metabolite Biosynthesis: Variability and Putative Horizontal Transfer of Discrete Catalytic Domains of the Epothilone Polyketide Synthase Locus." Molecular Genetics and Genomics 270, (5): 420-431. doi:10.1007/s00438-003-0937-9.

ORCID ID

0000-0002-1637-4125

ResearcherID

F-8809-2011

DOI

10.1007/s00438-003-0937-9