Phylogenetic and chemotaxonomic characterization of Acidaminococcus fermentans

Abstract

The phylogenetic position of Acidaminococcus fermentans was determined by comparative sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA. This Gram-negative bacterium is a member of the Sporomusa cluster that is defined by other Gram-negative bacteria, i.e. Sporomusa, Megasphaera, Selenomonas, Butyrivibrio, Pectinatus, and Zymophilus. The branching point of this group within the radiation of Gram-positive bacteria of the Clostridium/Bacillus subphylum and adjacent to Peptococcus niger could be confirmed. Chemotaxonomic data were provided for a more detailed characterization of A. fermentans.

Pectinatus, Megasphaera and Zymophilus

“…The phylogenetic position of Pectinatus has been confirmed during recent years (Schleifer et al, 1990;Motoyama and Ogata, 2000b;Ludwig et al, 1992;Both et al, 1992;Willems and Collins, 1995;Sawada et al, 1999;Klugbauer et al, 1992). The 16S rRNA, 23S rRNA and the ATPase β-subunit gene sequences, the 16S-23S rDNA intergenic spacer regions as well as DNA-DNA hybridization have been used as phylogenetic markers.…”

“…belong to the Sporomusa subdivision of the Clostridium subphylum (Schleifer et al, 1990;Willems and Collins, 1995;Both et al, 1992). The similarity between two Pectinatus species and Z. paucivorans was 88%, which was also their similarity to Selenomonas lacticifex (Willems and Collins, 1995).…”

“…Pectinatus species, along with Selenomonas, Megasphaera, Sporomusa, Veillonella and Zymophilus, belong to the Sporomusa subbranch of the Clostridium subphylum of Gram-positive bacteria (Schleifer et al, 1990;Willems and Collins, 1995). Moreover, Pectinatus species have been classified as relatives of Gram-negative, anaerobic bacteria such as Centipeda periodontii (Sawada et al, 1999), Dialister pneumosintes (Willems and Collins, 1995), Schwarzia succinivorans (Van Gylswyk et al, 1997), Acidaminococcus fermentans (Both et al, 1992) and some Anaerovibrio species (Strömpl et al, 1999). According to the 16S rRNA sequences, the similarity between P. frisingensis and P. cerevisiiphilus was 95%, the nearest other species (similarities with Pectinatus spp.)…”

“…The phylogenetic tree (obtained by applying the neighbor-joining method and parsimony analyses) demonstrated the relationships between M. cerevisiae and organisms of the Sporomusa group (Doyle et al, 1995). Both et al (1992) studied the phylogenetic position of Acidaminococcus fermentans in the Sporomusa cluster containing Gram-negative bacteria, i.e., Sporomusa, Megasphaera, Selenomonas, Butyrivibrio, Pectinatus and Zymophilus. Within this cluster, the relationship between species of Acidaminococcus and Megasphaera, described to be members of Veillonellaceae, was obvious but did not exclude other Gramnegative organisms.…”

Cloning, sequencing and expression of the gene encoding the carboxytransferase subunit of the biotin‐dependent Na+ pump glutaconyl‐CoA decarboxylase from Acidaminococcus fermentans in Escherichia coli

“…Native GCD and expressed GCDA were treated with 2 mM N-ethylmaleimide showing different kinetics of inactivation: GCD lost half of its activity within 6 min, whereas expressed GCDA required 21 min. sides the Gram-positive A. fermentuns (Both et al, 1992), the enzyme has also been purified from the Gram-positive Peptostreptococcus asucchurolyticus and Clostridium symbiosum, as well as from the Gram-negative Fusobacterium nucleutum (Buckel and Semmler, 1983;Beatrix et al, 1990). In the case of P. usacchurolyticus, it has been shown that the sodium pump conserves about the same amount of energy as that obtained by substrate level phosphorylation (0.6 mol ATP/mol glutamate; Wohlfarth and Buckel, 1985).…”