title: DNA repair in Chromobacterium violaceum.
abstract: Chromobacterium violaceum is a Gram-negative beta-proteobacterium that inhabits a variety of ecosystems in tropical and subtropical regions, including the water and banks of the Negro River in the Brazilian Amazon. This bacterium has been the subject of extensive study over the last three decades, due to its biotechnological properties, including the characteristic violacein pigment, which has antimicrobial and anti-tumoral activities. C. violaceum promotes the solubilization of gold in a mercury-free process, and has been used in the synthesis of homopolyesters suitable for the production of biodegradable polymers. The complete genome sequence of this organism has been completed by the Brazilian National Genome Project Consortium. The aim of our group was to study the DNA repair genes in this organism, due to their importance in the maintenance of genomic integrity. We identified DNA repair genes involved in different pathways in C. violaceum through a similarity search against known sequences deposited in databases. The phylogenetic analyses were done using programs of the PHILYP package. This analysis revealed various metabolic pathways, including photoreactivation, base excision repair, nucleotide excision repair, mismatch repair, recombinational repair, and the SOS system. The similarity between the C. violaceum sequences and those of Neisserie miningitidis and Ralstonia solanacearum was greater than that between the C. violaceum and Escherichia coli sequences. The peculiarities found in the C. violaceum genome were the absence of LexA, some horizontal transfer events and a large number of repair genes involved with alkyl and oxidative DNA damage.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Biologia Celular e Genética, Centro de Biociências, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte, Campus Universitário, Lagoa Nova, 59072-970 Natal, RN, Brasil.
authors.forename: Fábio Teixeira
authors.initials: FT
authors.lastname: Duarte
authors.forename: Fabíola Marques de
authors.initials: FM
authors.lastname: Carvalho
authors.forename: Uaska
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bezerra e Silva
authors.forename: Kátia Castanho
authors.initials: KC
authors.lastname: Scortecci
authors.forename: Carlos Alfredo Galindo
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Blaha
authors.forename: Lucymara Fassarella
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Agnez-Lima
authors.forename: Silvia Regina
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Batistuzzo de Medeiros
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D020137:Base Pair Mismatch / Q000235:genetics; D002861:Chromobacterium / Q000235:genetics*; D004260:DNA Repair / Q000235:genetics*; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D010802:Phylogeny; D011995:Recombination, Genetic; D013014:SOS Response, Genetics / Q000235:genetics; D017385:Sequence Homology
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins