Metagenomics reveals that detoxification systems are underrepresented in marine bacterial communities.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Environmental shotgun sequencing (metagenomics) provides a new way to study communities in microbial ecology. We here use sequence data from the Global Ocean Sampling (GOS) expedition to investigate toxicant selection pressures revealed by the presence of detoxification genes in marine bacteria. To capture a broad range of potential toxicants we selected detoxification protein families representing systems protecting microorganisms from a variety of stressors, such as metals, organic compounds, antibiotics and oxygen radicals.

Results

Using a bioinformatics procedure based on comparative analysis to finished bacterial genomes we found that the amount of detoxification genes present in marine microorganisms seems surprisingly small. The underrepresentation is parti

SUBMITTER: Bengtsson-Palme J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4161860 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature