Whole-genome sequencing reveals novel insights into sulfur oxidation in the extremophile Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans

BMC Microbiology

Xueduan Liu²  Jiaojiao Niu²  Liyuan Ma²  Jing Cong²  Yunhua Xiao²  Qi Hu²  Xue Guo²  Yili Liang²  Zhili He¹  Xiaoqi Li²  Xian Zhang²  Huaqun Yin² 

[1]Institute for Environmental Genomics, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

[2]Key Laboratory of Biometallurgy of Ministry of Education, Central South University, Changsha, China

关键词: Sulfur oxidation model;    Real-time quantitative PCR;    Bioinformatics analysis;    Whole genome sequence;    Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans;   

Others  :  1140850
DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2180-14-179

 received in 2014-02-14, accepted in 2014-06-19,  发布年份 2014

【 摘 要 】

Background

Acidithiobacillus thiooxidans (A. thiooxidans), a chemolithoautotrophic extremophile, is widely used in the industrial recovery of copper (bioleaching or biomining). The organism grows and survives by autotrophically utilizing energy derived from the oxidation of elemental sulfur and reduced inorganic sulfur compounds (RISCs). However, the lack of genetic manipulation systems has restricted our exploration of its physiology. With the development of high-throughput sequencing technology, the whole genome sequence analysis of A. thiooxidans has allowed preliminary models to be built for genes/enzymes involved in key energy pathways like sulfur oxidation.

Results

The genome of A. thiooxidans A01 was sequenced and annotated. It contains key sulfur oxidation enzymes involved in the oxidation of elemental sulfur and RISCs, such as sulfur dioxygenase (SDO), sulfide quinone reductase (SQR), thiosulfate:quinone oxidoreductase (TQO), tetrathionate hydrolase (TetH), sulfur oxidizing protein (Sox) system and their associated electron transport components. Also, the sulfur oxygenase reductase (SOR) gene was detected in the draft genome sequence of A. thiooxidans A01, and multiple sequence alignment was performed to explore the function of groups of related protein sequences. In addition, another putative pathway was found in the cytoplasm of A. thiooxidans, which catalyzes sulfite to sulfate as the final product by phosphoadenosine phosphosulfate (PAPS) reductase and adenylylsulfate (APS) kinase. This differs from its closest relative Acidithiobacillus caldus, which is performed by sulfate adenylyltransferase (SAT). Furthermore, real-time quantitative PCR analysis showed that most of sulfur oxidation genes were more strongly expressed in the S⁰ medium than that in the Na₂S₂O₃ medium at the mid-log phase.

Conclusion

Sulfur oxidation model of A. thiooxidans A01 has been constructed based on previous studies from other sulfur oxidizing strains and its genome sequence analyses, providing insights into our understanding of its physiology and further analysis of potential functions of key sulfur oxidation genes.

【 授权许可】

   
2014 Yin et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

【 图 表 】

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