title: Distribution of glutathione transferases in Gram-positive bacteria and Archaea.
abstract: Glutathione transferases (GSTs) have been widely studied in Gram-negative bacteria and the structure and function of several representatives have been elucidated. Conversely, limited information is available about the occurrence, classification and functional features of GSTs both in Gram-positive bacteria and in Archaea. An analysis of 305 fully-sequenced Gram-positive genomes highlights the presence of 49 putative GST genes in the genera of both Firmicutes and Actinobacteria phyla. We also performed an analysis on 81 complete genomes of the Archaea domain. Eleven hits were found in the Halobacteriaceae family of the Euryarchaeota phylum and only one in the Crenarchaeota phylum. A comparison of the identified sequences with well-characterized GSTs belonging to both Gram-negative and eukaryotic GSTs sheds light on their putative function and the evolutionary relationships within the large GST superfamily. This analysis suggests that the identified sequences mainly cluster in the new Xi class, while Beta class GSTs, widely distributed in Gram-negative bacteria, are under-represented in Gram-positive bacteria and absent in Archaea.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Università G. d'Annunzio, Via dei Vestini 31, I-66013 Chieti, Italy.
authors.forename: Nerino
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Allocati
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Federici
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Masulli
authors.forename: Carmine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Di Ilio
mesh_terms: D001105:Archaea / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000378:metabolism; D005978:Glutathione / Q000378:metabolism; D005982:Glutathione Transferase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D006094:Gram-Positive Bacteria / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D005982:Glutathione Transferase; D005978:Glutathione