Nucleic Acids Research Advance Access originally published online on July 28, 2009
Nucleic Acids Research 2009 37(17):5768-5783; doi:10.1093/nar/gkp612
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Nucleic Acids Research, 2009, Vol. 37, No. 17 5768-5783
© 2009 The Author(s)
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Genomics |
Whole-genome analyses reveal genetic instability of Acetobacter pasteurianus
1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Yamaguchi University School of Medicine. 1-1-1 Minami-Kogushi, Ube, Yamaguchi 755-8505, 2Department of Biotechnology, National Institute of Technology and Evaluation. 2-49-10 Nishihara, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo, 151-0066, 3Genetic Resources Technology, Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu Univ. 6-10-1 Hakozaki Higashi-ku, Fukuoka, 812-8581 and 4Department of Biological Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Yamaguchi University. Yamaguchi, Yamaguchi 753-8515, Japan
*To whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: +81 836 22 2227; Fax: +81 836 22 2415; Email: yazuma{at}yamaguchi-u.ac.jp
Received April 30, 2009. Revised July 5, 2009. Accepted July 7, 2009.
Acetobacter species have been used for brewing traditional vinegar and are known to have genetic instability. To clarify the mutability, Acetobacter pasteurianus NBRC 3283, which forms a multi-phenotype cell complex, was subjected to genome DNA sequencing. The genome analysis revealed that there are more than 280 transposons and five genes with hyper-mutable tandem repeats as common features in the genome consisting of a 2.9-Mb chromosome and six plasmids. There were three single nucleotide mutations and five transposon insertions in 32 isolates from the cell complex. The A. pasteurianus hyper-mutability was applied for breeding a temperature-resistant strain grown at an unviable high-temperature (42°C). The genomic DNA sequence of a heritable mutant showing temperature resistance was analyzed by mutation mapping, illustrating that a 92-kb deletion and three single nucleotide mutations occurred in the genome during the adaptation. Alpha-proteobacteria including A. pasteurianus consists of many intracellular symbionts and parasites, and their genomes show increased evolution rates and intensive genome reduction. However, A. pasteurianus is assumed to be a free-living bacterium, it may have the potentiality to evolve to fit in natural niches of seasonal fruits and flowers with other organisms, such as yeasts and lactic acid bacteria.