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Lateral gene transfer occurring in haloarchaea: an interpretative imitation study

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Abstract

Lateral gene transfer (LGT) plays an important role in the molecular evolution of haloarchaea. Polyethylene glycol-mediated LGT in haloarchaea has been demonstrated in the laboratory, yet few explanations have been put forward for the apparently common, natural occurrence of plentiful plasmids within haloarchaeal cells. In this study, LGT was induced in two genera of haloarchaea, Haloferax and Halorubrum, by modification of salt concentration of media—a factor that may vary naturally in native haloarchaeal habitat. Minimal growth salt concentrations (MGSCs) of four strains of haloarchaea from these two genera were established, and transformations using two circular double-stranded DNAs (dsDNAs), pSY1 and pWL102, were then produced in media at strain-appropriate MGSCs. The four strains of haloarchaea were transformed successfully by both kinds of dsDNAs with an efficiency of 102–103 transformants per microgram dsDNA. The transformation under reduced salt concentration may be an imitation of natural LGT of dsDNA into haloarchaea when salinity in normally hypersaline environments is altered by sudden introduction of fresh water—for example, by rainfall, snow-melt, or flooding—providing a reasonable interpretation for haloarchaea being naturally richer in plasmids than any other known organisms.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Joint Funds of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and Yunnan Provincial Government (No. U0836604), the Hundred Talents Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Education Department of Yunnan Province, China (09Y0413).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Biodiversity and Biogeography, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, 650201, China

    Shaoxing Chen, Bang Feng & Zhu L. Yang

  2. Key Laboratory of Conservation and Utilization for Bioresources and Key Laboratory of Microbial Diversity in Southwest China, Ministry of Education, Yunnan University, Kunming, 650091, Yunnan, China

    Shaoxing Chen & Zhiwei Zhao

  3. College of Life Sciences, Honghe University, Mengzi, 661100, China

    Shaoxing Chen & Yanhong Liu

  4. Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Shaoxing Chen

  5. P. O. Box 57, Roosevelt, NJ, 08555-0057, USA

    Rodham E. Tulloss

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  1. Shaoxing Chen
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  2. Rodham E. Tulloss
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  3. Yanhong Liu
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  4. Bang Feng
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  5. Zhiwei Zhao
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  6. Zhu L. Yang
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Correspondence to Zhiwei Zhao or Zhu L. Yang.

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Chen, S., Tulloss, R.E., Liu, Y. et al. Lateral gene transfer occurring in haloarchaea: an interpretative imitation study. World J Microbiol Biotechnol 28, 2913–2918 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-012-1101-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11274-012-1101-7

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