title: Identification and analysis of a highly conserved chemotaxis gene cluster in Shewanella species.
abstract: A conserved cluster of chemotaxis genes was identified from the genome sequences of fifteen Shewanella species. An in-frame deletion of the cheA-3 gene, which is located in this cluster, was created in S. oneidensis MR-1 and the gene shown to be essential for chemotactic responses to anaerobic electron acceptors. The CheA-3 protein showed strong similarity to Vibrio cholerae CheA-2 and P. aeruginosa CheA-1, two proteins that are also essential for chemotaxis. The genes encoding these proteins were shown to be located in chemotaxis gene clusters closely related to the cheA-3-containing cluster in Shewanella species. The results of this study suggest that a combination of gene neighborhood and homology analyses may be used to predict which cheA genes are essential for chemotaxis in groups of closely related microorganisms.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, The Johns Hopkins University, N. Charles St. Baltimore, MD 21218, USA.
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Margaret F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Romine
authors.forename: Mandy J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Ward
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics; D002633:Chemotaxis / Q000235:genetics*; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D005810:Multigene Family; D010802:Phylogeny; D020539:Sequence Analysis, Protein; D020592:Shewanella / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins