Functional type 2 photosynthetic reaction centers found in the rare bacterial phylum Gemmatimonadetes

0440371 - MBÚ 2015 RIV US eng J - Journal Article
Zeng, Y. - Feng, F. - Medová, Hana - Dean, Jason Lawrence - Koblížek, Michal
Functional type 2 photosynthetic reaction centers found in the rare bacterial phylum Gemmatimonadetes.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Roč. 111, č. 21 (2014), s. 7795-7800. ISSN 0027-8424. E-ISSN 1091-6490
R&D Projects: GA ČR P501/10/0221; GA MŠMT ED2.1.00/03.0110; GA MŠMT EE2.3.30.0059
Institutional support: RVO:61388971
Keywords : anoxygenic photosynthesis * pigments * horizontal gene transfer
Subject RIV: EE - Microbiology, Virology
Impact factor: 9.674, year: 2014

Photosynthetic bacteria emerged on Earth more than 3 Gyr ago. To date, despite a long evolutionary history, species containing (bacterio) chlorophyll-based reaction centers have been reported in only 6 out of more than 30 formally described bacterial phyla: Cyanobacteria, Proteobacteria, Chlorobi, Chloroflexi, Firmicutes, and Acidobacteria. Here we describe a bacteriochlorophyll a-producing isolate AP64 that belongs to the poorly characterized phylum Gemmatimonadetes. This red-pigmented semiaerobic strain was isolated from a freshwater lake in the western Gobi Desert. It contains fully functional type 2 (pheophytin-quinone) photo-synthetic reaction centers but does not assimilate inorganic carbon, suggesting that it performs a photoheterotrophic lifestyle. Full genome sequencing revealed the presence of a 42.3-kb-long photosynthesis gene cluster (PGC) in its genome. The organization and phylogeny of its photosynthesis genes suggests an ancient acquisition of PGC via horizontal transfer from purple phototrophic bacteria. The data presented here document that Gemmatimonadetes is the seventh bacterial phylum containing (bacterio) chlorophyll-based phototrophic species. To our knowledge, these data provide the first evidence that (bacterio) chlorophyll-based phototrophy can be transferred between distant bacterial phyla, providing new insights into the evolution of bacterial photosynthesis.
Permanent Link: http://hdl.handle.net/11104/0243478