58
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      The large universal Pantoea plasmid LPP-1 plays a major role in biological and ecological diversification

      research-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Background

          Pantoea spp. are frequently isolated from a wide range of ecological niches and have various biological roles, as plant epi- or endophytes, biocontrol agents, plant-growth promoters or as pathogens of both plant and animal hosts. This suggests that members of this genus have undergone extensive genotypic diversification. One means by which this occurs among bacteria is through the acquisition and maintenance of plasmids. Here, we have analyzed and compared the sequences of a large plasmid common to all sequenced Pantoea spp.

          Results and discussion

          The Large P antoea Plasmids (LPP-1) of twenty strains encompassing seven different Pantoea species, including pathogens and endo-/epiphytes of a wide range of plant hosts as well as insect-associated strains, were compared. The LPP-1 plasmid sequences range in size from ~281 to 794 kb and carry between 238 and 750 protein coding sequences (CDS). A core set of 46 proteins, encompassing 2.2% of the total pan-plasmid (2,095 CDS), conserved among all LPP-1 plasmid sequences, includes those required for thiamine and pigment biosynthesis. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that these plasmids have arisen from an ancestral plasmid, which has undergone extensive diversification. Analysis of the proteins encoded on LPP-1 also showed that these plasmids contribute to a wide range of Pantoea phenotypes, including the transport and catabolism of various substrates, inorganic ion assimilation, resistance to antibiotics and heavy metals, colonization and persistence in the host and environment, pathogenesis and antibiosis.

          Conclusions

          LPP-1 is universal to all Pantoea spp. whose genomes have been sequenced to date and is derived from an ancestral plasmid. LPP-1 encodes a large array of proteins that have played a major role in the adaptation of the different Pantoea spp. to their various ecological niches and their specialization as pathogens, biocontrol agents or benign saprophytes found in many diverse environments.

          Related collections

          Most cited references55

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: found
          • Article: not found

          TCDB: the Transporter Classification Database for membrane transport protein analyses and information

          The Transporter Classification Database (TCDB) is a web accessible, curated, relational database containing sequence, classification, structural, functional and evolutionary information about transport systems from a variety of living organisms. TCDB is a curated repository for factual information compiled from >10 000 references, encompassing ∼3000 representative transporters and putative transporters, classified into >400 families. The transporter classification (TC) system is an International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology approved system of nomenclature for transport protein classification. TCDB is freely accessible at . The web interface provides several different methods for accessing the data, including step-by-step access to hierarchical classification, direct search by sequence or TC number and full-text searching. The functional ontology that underlies the database structure facilitates powerful query searches that yield valuable data in a quick and easy way. The TCDB website also offers several tools specifically designed for analyzing the unique characteristics of transport proteins. TCDB not only provides curated information and a tool for classifying newly identified membrane proteins, but also serves as a genome transporter-annotation tool.
            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Pantoea agglomerans, a plant pathogen causing human disease.

            We present 53 pediatric cases of Pantoea agglomerans infections cultured from normally sterile sites in patients seen at a children's hospital over 6 years. Isolates included 23 from the bloodstream, 14 from abscesses, 10 from joints/bones, 4 from the urinary tract, and 1 each from the peritoneum and the thorax. P. agglomerans was most associated with penetrating trauma by vegetative material and catheter-related bacteremia.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: not found

              Bacterial tellurite resistance.

              Tellurium compounds are used in several industrial processes, although they are relatively rare in the environment. Genes associated with tellurite resistance (TeR) are found in many pathogenic bacteria. Tellurite can be detoxified through interactions with cellular thiols, such as glutathione, or a methyltransferase-catalyzed reaction, although neither process appears involved in plasmid-mediated TeR.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Journal
                BMC Genomics
                BMC Genomics
                BMC Genomics
                BioMed Central
                1471-2164
                2012
                15 November 2012
                : 13
                : 625
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Forestry and Agricultural Biotechnology Institute, Department of Microbiology and Plant Pathology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
                [2 ]Center for Microbial Ecology and Genomics, Department of Genetics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
                [3 ]CeBiTec, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany
                [4 ]Agroscope Changins-Wädenswil ACW, Division of Plant Protection, Wädenswil, Switzerland
                Article
                1471-2164-13-625
                10.1186/1471-2164-13-625
                3505739
                23151240
                dcbf4046-3ad6-4ceb-9f46-3ac20172f09d
                Copyright ©2012 De Maayer et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

                This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

                History
                : 23 August 2012
                : 11 November 2012
                Categories
                Research Article

                Genetics
                Genetics

                Comments

                Comment on this article