A Comprehensive Study of Biohopanoid Production in Alphaproteobacteria: Biosynthetic, Chemotaxonomical, and Geobiological Implications.

ABSTRACT: Bacteriohopanepolyol derivatives (BHPDs) and dia- and catagenetic products formed from these bacterial membrane modifiers are extensively used as biomarkers in molecular ecological and geoscience studies. Some BHPDs can be assigned to specific phylogenetic bacterial groups. With the vastly increasing availability of complete bacterial genomes, hopanoid production can be readily predicted by the presence of specific genes encoding biosynthetic enzymes involved in their production, but the time-consuming physiological confirmation remains a critical element in the interpretation of such data in a biosynthetic and paleontological context. Alphaproteobacteria (APB) have often been proposed as important BHPD producers in a wide variety of environments and produce indicative BHPDs containing an

SUBMITTER: Sinninghe Damste JS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12583986 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature