Diverse alkane hydroxylase genes in microorganisms and environments.
AlkB and CYP153 are important alkane hydroxylases responsible for aerobic alkane degradation in bioremediation of oil-polluted environments and microbial enhanced oil recovery. Since their distribution in nature is not clear, we made the investigation among thus-far sequenced 3,979 microbial genomes and 137 metagenomes from terrestrial, freshwater, and marine environments. Hundreds of diverse alkB and CYP153 genes including many novel ones were found in bacterial genomes, whereas none were found in archaeal genomes. Moreover, these genes were detected with different distributional patterns in the terrestrial, freshwater, and marine metagenomes. Hints for horizontal gene transfer, gene duplication, and gene fusion were found, which together are likely responsible for diversifying the alkB and CYP153 genes adapt to the ubiquitous distribution of different alkanes in nature. In addition, different distributions of these genes between bacterial genomes and metagenomes suggested the potentially important roles of unknown or less common alkane degraders in nature.
1] College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China [2] Institute of Engineering (Baotou), College of Engineering, Peking University, Baotou 014030, China.
Yong
Y
Nie
College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Chang-Qiao
CQ
Chi
College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Hui
H
Fang
College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Jie-Liang
JL
Liang
College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
She-Lian
SL
Lu
1] College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China [2] Institute of Engineering (Baotou), College of Engineering, Peking University, Baotou 014030, China.
Guo-Li
GL
Lai
1] College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China [2] College of Architecture and Environment, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China.
Yue-Qin
YQ
Tang
College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P. R. China.
Xiao-Lei
XL
Wu
D000473:Alkanes / Q000378:metabolism; D042926:Cytochrome P-450 CYP4A / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D003577:Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D004777:Environment; D005618:Fresh Water / Q000382:microbiology; D016680:Genome, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D054892:Metagenome / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny
D000473:Alkanes; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D003577:Cytochrome P-450 Enzyme System; C435228:cytochrome P-450 CYP153 (Acinetobacter); D042926:Cytochrome P-450 CYP4A