title: New hydrocarbon degradation pathways in the microbial metagenome from Brazilian petroleum reservoirs.
abstract: Current knowledge of the microbial diversity and metabolic pathways involved in hydrocarbon degradation in petroleum reservoirs is still limited, mostly due to the difficulty in recovering the complex community from such an extreme environment. Metagenomics is a valuable tool to investigate the genetic and functional diversity of previously uncultured microorganisms in natural environments. Using a function-driven metagenomic approach, we investigated the metabolic abilities of microbial communities in oil reservoirs. Here, we describe novel functional metabolic pathways involved in the biodegradation of aromatic compounds in a metagenomic library obtained from an oil reservoir. Although many of the deduced proteins shared homology with known enzymes of different well-described aerobic and anaerobic catabolic pathways, the metagenomic fragments did not contain the complete clusters known to be involved in hydrocarbon degradation. Instead, the metagenomic fragments comprised genes belonging to different pathways, showing novel gene arrangements. These results reinforce the potential of the metagenomic approach for the identification and elucidation of new genes and pathways in poorly studied environments and contribute to a broader perspective on the hydrocarbon degradation processes in petroleum reservoirs.
authors.affiliation: Microbial Resources Division, Research Center for Chemistry, Biology and Agriculture (CPQBA), University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil.
authors.forename: Isabel Natalia
authors.initials: IN
authors.lastname: Sierra-García
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Genomics and Expression, University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil.
authors.forename: Javier
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Correa Alvarez
authors.affiliation: Federal University of São Paulo - UNIFESP, São Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Suzan Pantaroto
authors.initials: SP
authors.lastname: de Vasconcellos
authors.affiliation: Center of Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering - CBMEG/UNICAMP, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Anete
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pereira de Souza
authors.affiliation: PETROBRAS/R&D Center, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: Eugenio Vaz
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: dos Santos Neto
authors.affiliation: Microbial Resources Division, Research Center for Chemistry, Biology and Agriculture (CPQBA), University of Campinas - UNICAMP, Campinas, Brazil.
authors.forename: Valéria Maia
authors.initials: VM
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
mesh_terms: D000332:Aerobiosis; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D001938:Brazil; D006838:Hydrocarbons / Q000378:metabolism*; D054892:Metagenome / Q000235:genetics*; D010578:Petroleum / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000600:supply & distribution*; D010802:Phylogeny; D026801:Synteny
chemical_list: D006838:Hydrocarbons; D010578:Petroleum