title: Detection of eubacterial 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme a reductases from natural populations of actinomycetes.
abstract: Three natural populations of actinomycetes were investigated by PCR for the presence of type I 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl coenzyme A reductase (HMG CoA), a gene associated with isoprenoid biosynthesis. The populations were obtained from an agricultural site (69 isolates), a coastal salt marsh (220 isolates), and a desert soil (96 isolates). A set (34) of standard actinomycete reference strains were also investigated. The target gene was only detected in 5 of the 419 actinomycetes screened, which represented 4 from the coastal salt marsh and one reference strain. The isolates that contained the gene were taxonomically diverse (4 Streptomyces spp. and 1 Nocardia sp.). These results suggest that type I HMG CoA containing pathways are rare in actinomycetes and their distribution within actinomycetes populations is not random.
authors.affiliation: Merck Research Laboratories, P.O. Box 2000, RY80Y-235, Rahway, NJ 07065, USA. liesa_anderson@merck.com
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Sigmund
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: F A
authors.initials: FA
authors.lastname: Rainey
authors.forename: A S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Anderson
mesh_terms: D039903:Actinobacteria / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics*; D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D004777:Environment; D006903:Hydroxymethylglutaryl CoA Reductases / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D006903:Hydroxymethylglutaryl CoA Reductases