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Science 19 August 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5738, pp. 1242 - 1245
DOI: 10.1126/science.1114057
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Reports

Genome Streamlining in a Cosmopolitan Oceanic Bacterium

Stephen J. Giovannoni,1* H. James Tripp,1 Scott Givan,2 Mircea Podar,3 Kevin L. Vergin,1 Damon Baptista,3 Lisa Bibbs,3 Jonathan Eads,3 Toby H. Richardson,3 Michiel Noordewier,3 Michael S. Rappé,4 Jay M. Short,3 James C. Carrington,2 Eric J. Mathur3

The SAR11 clade consists of very small, heterotrophic marine {alpha}-proteobacteria that are found throughout the oceans, where they account for about 25% of all microbial cells. Pelagibacter ubique, the first cultured member of this clade, has the smallest genome and encodes the smallest number of predicted open reading frames known for a free-living microorganism. In contrast to parasitic bacteria and archaea with small genomes, P. ubique has complete biosynthetic pathways for all 20 amino acids and all but a few cofactors. P. ubique has no pseudogenes, introns, transposons, extrachromosomal elements, or inteins; few paralogs; and the shortest intergenic spacers yet observed for any cell.

1 Department of Microbiology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
2 Center for Gene Research and Biotechnology, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA.
3 Diversa Corporation, 4955 Directors Place, San Diego, CA 92121, USA.
4 Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii, Post Office Box 1346, Kaneohe, HI 96744, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: steve.giovannoni{at}oregonstate.edu

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