Structure analysis of a class II transposon encoding the mercury resistance of the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus megaterium MB1, a strain isolated from Minamata Bay, Japan

Huang, Chieh-Chen; Narita, Masaru; Yamagata, T.; Itoh, Yukihiro; Endo, Ginro

doi:10.1016/s0378-1119(99)00184-5

Cited by 67 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Many studies have focused on the effects of heavy metals on bacterial community structure (Ranjard et al 2006;Ogilvie & Grant 2008;Khan et al 2010;Pechrada et al 2010), and relatively many bacteria have already been isolated from different heavy-metal-contaminated environments and their metabolic pathways for pollutant detoxification have been studied in detail. These studies included the mercury-reducing bacteria Bacillus megaterium MB1 (Huang et al 1999); the cadmium-accumulating bacteria Rhodospirillum rubrum (Smiejan et al 2003); strains resistant to multiple heavy metals (Schmidt & Schlegel 1994;Taghavi et al 1994;Mergeay et al 2003); bacteria specific to HgCl 2 -contaminated soils, such as Duganella violaceinigra, Lysobacter koreensis and Bacillus panaciterrae (Mera & Iwasaki 2007); cadmium-resistant bacteria, such as Alcaligenes xylosoxidans, Comamonas testosteroni, Klebsiella planticola, Pseudomonas fluorescens and Serratia liquefaciens (Chovanová et al 2004); Ochrobactrum sp. (Pandey et al 2010); a Ralstonia pickettii strain, highly Isolation of culturable bacteria and resistance determinants 19 resistant to cadmium, and a Sphingomonas sp.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The isolation of heavy-metal resistant culturable bacteria and resistance determinants from a heavy-metal-contaminated site

et al. 2010

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In this study we performed a phylogenetic analysis of a culturable bacterial community isolated from heavymetal-contaminated soil from southwest Slovakia using 16S rRNA (16S rDNA) and heavy-metal resistance genes. The soil sample contained high concentrations of nickel (2,109 mg/kg), cobalt (355 mg/kg) and zinc (177 mg/kg), smaller concentrations of iron (35.75 mg/kg) and copper (32.2 mg/kg), and a trace amount of cadmium (<0.25 mg/kg). A total of 100 isolates were grown on rich (Nutrient agar No. 2) or minimal (soil-extract agar medium) medium. The isolates were identified by phylogenetic analysis using partial sequences of their 16S rRNA (16S rDNA) genes. Representatives of two broad taxonomic groups, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, were found on rich medium, whereas four taxonomic groups, Actinobacteria, Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria, were represented on minimal medium. Forty-two isolates grown on rich medium were assigned to 20 bacterial species, while 58 bacteria grown on minimal medium belonged to 49 species. Twenty-three isolates carried czcA-and/or nccA-like heavy-metal-resistance determinants. The heavy-metalresistance genes of nine isolates were identified by phylogenetic analysis of their protein sequences.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The isolation of heavy-metal resistant culturable bacteria and resistance determinants from a heavy-metal-contaminated site

et al. 2010

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“…Although there are fewer known examples of group II introns than of group I introns in bacteria, one trend is immediately clear: most group II introns are inserted in, or associated with, other mobile genetic elements (23,32,48,56,59,80) ( Table 2). The best studied bacterial group II intron, the Ll.LtrB intron of L. lactis ML3, is inserted in the conjugative relaxase gene essential for transfer of the plasmid pRS01 (56).…”

Section: Where Are Group I and Ii Introns Found?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers to Intron Promiscuity in Bacteria

2000

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2"The field of bacterial viruses is a fine playground for serious children who ask ambitious questions."Max DelbruckThe first bacterial intron, a self-splicing group I intron, was found to interrupt the thymidylate synthase (td) gene of the Escherichia coli phage T4 (11). The second and third bacterial group I introns were found to interrupt the aerobic (nrdB) and anaerobic (nrdD [initially named sunY]) ribonucleotide reductases of phage T4 (29,90), and another group I intron was soon discovered in the DNA polymerase gene of SPO1, a Bacillus phage (25). From this (admittedly) small sampling of phage genomes, one might have naively expected that group I introns would be abundant in phage or bacterial genomes, especially since subsequent laboratory experiments demonstrated that group I introns could propagate themselves (by a process called homing) throughout populations of intron-minus alleles with near 100% efficiency (5, 68). That a similar homing phenomenon had also been previously demonstrated for a group I intron in the large rRNA gene of yeast mitochondria (34) gave additional support to the notion that group I introns should be able to spread efficiently throughout populations. However, this expected outcome has never been realized in natural phage populations; some phage populations harbor many introns, while other related phage populations are strangely lacking in any introns whatsoever (Table 1). Why do group I introns have an unusual distribution in phage and bacterial genomes, and what potential barriers might exist to prevent their spread?A similar question might be asked of group II introns in bacteria. Much was made of the initial finding of group II introns in bacteria, as their discovery added fuel to the debate concerning the evolutionary origins of eukaryotic spliceosomal introns (22, 70) which have both structural and functional similarities to group II introns (53,79,84). Yet, the number of group II introns in bacteria is small, many of which are inferred only from database matches to reverse transcriptases or maturases encoded within known introns (13,41,73,89), and only two have been shown to splice or be mobile in vivo (48,49,55,80) (Table 2). While group II intron homing is mechanistically distinct from group I intron homing, the principle is similar; group II introns home from intron-containing to intronless alleles. Many elegant biochemical and genetic experiments have unraveled the complexities of bacterial group II intron homing (14,48,49), and based on these results, there seems no a priori reason why group II introns should not be able to spread efficiently through populations of intron-minus alleles. The paucity of bacterial group II introns becomes even more perplexing given the recent demonstration of group II intron transposition to novel chromosomal sites (15). That group II introns are abundant in mitochondrial and chloroplast genomes (52) and present in bacterial genomes but at lower levels (and absent in phages) only adds to the mystery surrounding the lack of group II intro...

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“…In a series of previous publications, we described this system and identified the three promoter regions and their cognate regulators. [11][12][13] The mercury resistant system was analyzed using either a heterogeneous host or multicopy plasmids. 13) Here, we further characterized the interaction of MerR1 and MerR2 with the three promoter regions by examining the binding of the regulatory proteins to DNA and the effect of the presence of Hg 2þ on this binding, and by measuring transcript abundance.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…E. coli DH5 and BL21(DE3)(pLysS) strains were used in cloning and MerR1 or MerR2 expression respectively. B. megaterium MB1 11) was used to monitor RNA levels under different induced conditions. Plasmid pYW33 6) was the template for amplification of mer operon genes in this study, and pET-21b(+) (Novagen, Madison, WI) was used as an expression vector.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Interactions between Two MerR Regulators and Three Operator/Promoter Regions in the Mercury Resistance Module ofBacillus megaterium

Chen

Hsieh

Silver

et al. 2008

Bioscience, Biotechnology, and Biochemistry

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Structure analysis of a class II transposon encoding the mercury resistance of the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus megaterium MB1, a strain isolated from Minamata Bay, Japan

Cited by 67 publications

References 29 publications

The isolation of heavy-metal resistant culturable bacteria and resistance determinants from a heavy-metal-contaminated site

The isolation of heavy-metal resistant culturable bacteria and resistance determinants from a heavy-metal-contaminated site

Barriers to Intron Promiscuity in Bacteria

Interactions between Two MerR Regulators and Three Operator/Promoter Regions in the Mercury Resistance Module ofBacillus megaterium

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