The genome of Syntrophus aciditrophicus: life at the thermodynamic limit of microbial growth.

ABSTRACT: Biochemically, the syntrophic bacteria constitute the missing link in our understanding of anaerobic flow of carbon in the biosphere. The completed genome sequence of Syntrophus aciditrophicus SB, a model fatty acid- and aromatic acid-degrading syntrophic bacterium, provides a glimpse of the composition and architecture of the electron transfer and energy-transducing systems needed to exist on marginal energy economies of a syntrophic lifestyle. The genome contains 3,179,300 base pairs and 3,169 genes where 1,618 genes were assigned putative functions. Metabolic reconstruction of the gene inventory revealed that most biosynthetic pathways of a typical Gram-negative microbe were present. A distinctive feature of syntrophic metabolism is the need for reverse electron transport; the presence

SUBMITTER: McInerney MJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1863511 | biostudies-literature | 2007 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature