Reconstructing an ancestral genotype of two hexachlorocyclohexane-degrading Sphingobium species using metagenomic sequence data.

ABSTRACT: Over the last 60 years, the use of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) as a pesticide has resulted in the production of >4 million tons of HCH waste, which has been dumped in open sinks across the globe. Here, the combination of the genomes of two genetic subspecies (Sphingobium japonicum UT26 and Sphingobium indicum B90A; isolated from two discrete geographical locations, Japan and India, respectively) capable of degrading HCH, with metagenomic data from an HCH dumpsite (∼450 mg HCH per g soil), enabled the reconstruction and validation of the last-common ancestor (LCA) genotype. Mapping the LCA genotype (3128 genes) to the subspecies genomes demonstrated that >20% of the genes in each subspecies were absent in the LCA. This includes two enzymes from the 'upper' HCH degradation pathway, suggestin

SUBMITTER: Sangwan N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3906814 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature