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The puf operon of the purple sulfur bacterium Amoebobacter purpureus: structure, transcription and phylogenetic analysis

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Abstract

The puf operon, encoding photosynthetic reaction center and light-harvesting genes, of the purple sulfur phototrophic bacterium Amoebobacter purpureus was cloned and sequenced. This revealed an unusual operon structure of the genes pufB 1 A 1 LMCB 2 A 2 B 3 A 3. The sequence represents the second complete puf operon available for Chromatiaceae. So far, additional sets of light-harvesting 1 (LH1) genes, pufB 2 A 2 and pufB 3 A 3 in the region downstream of pufC have only been described for Allochromatium vinosum. Along with reports of multiple LH1 polypeptides found in some Ectothiorhodospiraceae by direct protein sequencing, our results indicate that multiple LH1 genes may occur frequently in phototrophic γ-proteobacteria. Phylogenetic analyses suggested a coevolution of the core puf genes pufB 1 A 1 LM. Separate analysis of the LH1 α and β polypeptides revealed a high intraspecies relatedness for the secondary LH1β polypeptides, possibly caused by functional constraints. In contrast, LH1α subunits of Amb. purpureus and Alc. vinosum are closely related (85% sequence identity) which could reflect horizontal gene transfer. RNA analyses suggested co-transcription of all puf genes in Amb. purpureus as a 5.5 kb primary transcript which appears to be more stable than the puf operon primary transcripts of purple non-sulfur bacteria. The 5′ end of the transcript mapped to a putative promoter, which contains a −35 region located in an inverted repeat DNA sequence.

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Abbreviations

aa :

Amino acids

Alc.:

Allochromatium

BChl :

Bacteriochlorophyll

Ect.:

Ectothiorhodospira

EDTA :

Ethylendiamine tetraacetic acid

LH :

Light harvesting complex

RC :

Reaction center

Rba.:

Rhodobacter

Rps.:

Rhodopseudomonas

Rsp.:

Rhodospirillum

MOPS :

3-(N-morpholino)propanesulfonic acid

orf :

Open reading frame

Tch.:

Thermochromatium

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Acknowledgements

This investigation was supported by NSERC grants to J. T. Beatty, and scholarships of the German academic exchange service (DAAD) and the Heinz Neumüller Stiftung to Christian Tuschak. For Rhodopseudomonas palustris preliminary sequence data were obtained from the DOE Joint Genome Institute (JGI) at http://www.jgi.doe.gov/JGI_microbial/html/index.html.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bereich Mikrobiologie, Department Biologie I, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Maria-Ward-Str. 1a, 80638, München, Germany

    Christian Tuschak & Jörg Overmann

  2. Department of Microbiology & Immunology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T1Z3, Canada

    Molly M. Leung & J. Thomas Beatty

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  1. Christian Tuschak
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  2. Molly M. Leung
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  3. J. Thomas Beatty
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  4. Jörg Overmann
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Correspondence to Jörg Overmann.

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Dedicated to Prof. Dr. Norbert Pfennig on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

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Tuschak, C., Leung, M.M., Beatty, J.T. et al. The puf operon of the purple sulfur bacterium Amoebobacter purpureus: structure, transcription and phylogenetic analysis. Arch Microbiol 183, 431–443 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-005-0016-1

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