Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
Phire Hot Start DNA Polymerase

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 24 March 2006:
Vol. 311. no. 5768, pp. 1768 - 1770
DOI: 10.1126/science.1122050

Reports

Genomic Islands and the Ecology and Evolution of Prochlorococcus

Maureen L. Coleman,1 Matthew B. Sullivan,1 Adam C. Martiny,1 Claudia Steglich,1* Kerrie Barry,2 Edward F. DeLong,1 Sallie W. Chisholm1{dagger}

Prochlorococcus ecotypes are a useful system for exploring the origin and function of diversity among closely related microbes. The genetic variability between phenotypically distinct strains that differ by less that 1% in 16S ribosomal RNA sequences occurs mostly in genomic islands. Island genes appear to have been acquired in part by phage-mediated lateral gene transfer, and some are differentially expressed under light and nutrient stress. Furthermore, genome fragments directly recovered from ocean ecosystems indicate that these islands are variable among cooccurring Prochlorococcus cells. Genomic islands in this free-living photoautotroph share features with pathogenicity islands of parasitic bacteria, suggesting a general mechanism for niche differentiation in microbial species.

1 Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 15 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
2 U.S. Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute, Production Genomics Facility, Walnut Creek, CA 94598, USA.

* Present address: University Freiburg, Department of Biology II/Experimental Bioinformatics, Schänzlestrasse 1, D-79104 Freiburg, Germany.

{dagger} To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: chisholm{at}mit.edu

Read the Full Text



THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
A Family of Insertion Sequences That Impacts Integrons by Specific Targeting of Gene Cassette Recombination Sites, the IS1111-attC Group.
S. G. Tetu and A. J. Holmes (2008)
J. Bacteriol. 190, 4959-4970
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
A Korarchaeote yields to genome sequencing.
K. Nealson (2008)
PNAS 105, 8805-8806
   Full Text »    PDF »
The High Light-Inducible Polypeptides Stabilize Trimeric Photosystem I Complex under High Light Conditions in Synechocystis PCC 6803.
Q. Wang, S. Jantaro, B. Lu, W. Majeed, M. Bailey, and Q. He (2008)
Plant Physiology 147, 1239-1250
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
From the Cover: Microbial community gene expression in ocean surface waters.
J. Frias-Lopez, Y. Shi, G. W. Tyson, M. L. Coleman, S. C. Schuster, S. W. Chisholm, and E. F. DeLong (2008)
PNAS 105, 3805-3810
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Ma-LMM01 Infecting Toxic Microcystis aeruginosa Illuminates Diverse Cyanophage Genome Strategies.
T. Yoshida, K. Nagasaki, Y. Takashima, Y. Shirai, Y. Tomaru, Y. Takao, S. Sakamoto, S. Hiroishi, and H. Ogata (2008)
J. Bacteriol. 190, 1762-1772
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Genome evolution in cyanobacteria: The stable core and the variable shell.
T. Shi and P. G. Falkowski (2008)
PNAS 105, 2510-2515
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Genetic Exchange Across a Species Boundary in the Archaeal Genus Ferroplasma.
J. M. Eppley, G. W. Tyson, W. M. Getz, and J. F. Banfield (2007)
Genetics 177, 407-416
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Genome dynamics in a natural archaeal population.
E. E. Allen, G. W. Tyson, R. J. Whitaker, J. C. Detter, P. M. Richardson, and J. F. Banfield (2007)
PNAS 104, 1883-1888
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Genomic Structure and Phylogeny of the Plant Pathogen Ralstonia solanacearum Inferred from Gene Distribution Analysis.
A. Guidot, P. Prior, J. Schoenfeld, S. Carrere, S. Genin, and C. Boucher (2007)
J. Bacteriol. 189, 377-387
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Comparative Proteomics of Dehalococcoides spp. Reveals Strain-Specific Peptides Associated with Activity.
R. M. Morris, J. M. Fung, B. G. Rahm, S. Zhang, D. L. Freedman, S. H. Zinder, and R. E. Richardson (2007)
Appl. Envir. Microbiol. 73, 320-326
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Genome-Wide Analysis of Light Sensing in Prochlorococcus.
C. Steglich, M. Futschik, T. Rector, R. Steen, and S. W. Chisholm (2006)
J. Bacteriol. 188, 7796-7806
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Suppression of the Lethality of High Light to a Quadruple HLI Mutant by the Inactivation of the Regulatory Protein PfsR in Synechocystis PCC 6803.
S. Jantaro, Q. Ali, S. Lone, and Q. He (2006)
J. Biol. Chem. 281, 30865-30874
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Phosphate acquisition genes in Prochlorococcus ecotypes: Evidence for genome-wide adaptation.
A. C. Martiny, M. L. Coleman, and S. W. Chisholm (2006)
PNAS 103, 12552-12557
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »



ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT

To Advertise     Find Products


Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)