Acaryochloris marina is a unique cyanobacterium that is able to produce chlorophyll d as its primary photosynthetic pigment and thus efficiently use far-red light for photosynthesis. Acaryochloris species have been isolated from marine environments in association with other oxygenic phototrophs, which may have driven the niche-filling introduction of chlorophyll d. To investigate these unique adaptations, we have sequenced the complete genome of A. marina. The DNA content of A. marina is composed of 8.3 million base pairs, which is among the largest bacterial genomes sequenced thus far. This large array of genomic data is distributed into nine single-copy plasmids that code for >25% of the putative ORFs. Heavy duplication of genes related to DNA repair and recombination (primarily recA) and transposable elements could account for genetic mobility and genome expansion. We discuss points of interest for the biosynthesis of the unusual pigments chlorophyll d and ␣-carotene and genes responsible for previously studied phycobilin aggregates. Our analysis also reveals that A. marina carries a unique complement of genes for these phycobiliproteins in relation to those coding for antenna proteins related to those in Prochlorococcus species. The global replacement of major photosynthetic pigments appears to have incurred only minimal specializations in reaction center proteins to accommodate these alternate pigments. These features clearly show that the genus Acaryochloris is a fitting candidate for understanding genome expansion, gene acquisition, ecological adaptation, and photosystem modification in the cyanobacteria.comparative microbial genomics ͉ photosynthesis ͉ oxygenic phototrophs ͉ evolution
Despite the fact that heliobacteria are the only phototrophic representatives of the bacterial phylum Firmicutes, genomic analyses of these organisms have yet to be reported. Here we describe the complete sequence and analysis of the genome of Heliobacterium modesticaldum, a thermophilic species belonging to this unique group of phototrophs. The genome is a single 3.1-Mb circular chromosome containing 3,138 open reading frames. As suspected from physiological studies of heliobacteria that have failed to show photoautotrophic growth, genes encoding enzymes for known autotrophic pathways in other phototrophic organisms, including ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (Calvin cycle), citrate lyase (reverse citric acid cycle), and malyl coenzyme A lyase (3-hydroxypropionate pathway), are not present in the H. modesticaldum genome. Thus, heliobacteria appear to be the only known anaerobic anoxygenic phototrophs that are not capable of autotrophy. Although for some cellular activities, such as nitrogen fixation, there is a full complement of genes in H. modesticaldum, other processes, including carbon metabolism and endosporulation, are more genetically streamlined than they are in most other low-G؉C gram-positive bacteria. Moreover, several genes encoding photosynthetic functions in phototrophic purple bacteria are not present in the heliobacteria. In contrast to the nutritional flexibility of many anoxygenic phototrophs, the complete genome sequence of H. modesticaldum reveals an organism with a notable degree of metabolic specialization and genomic reduction.
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