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Megaplasmids in Cupriavidus Genus and Metal Resistance

  • Chapter
Microbial Megaplasmids

Part of the book series: Microbiology Monographs ((MICROMONO,volume 11))

Abstract

Megaplasmids carrying genetic determinants for the response and the resistance to heavy metals are regularly found in bacteria belonging to the genus Cupriavidus/Ralstonia and isolated from industrial biotopes rich in heavy metals. The C. metallidurans strain CH34 and its representative plasmids pMOL28 (171 kb), which carries the resistance to mercury, chromate, nickel and cobalt, and pMOL30 (234 kb), which carries the resistance to cadmium, zinc, cobalt, lead, mercury and copper, were fully annotated. The plasmid pMOL28 contains a backbone that is quite similar to the backbone of plasmid pHG1 from C. eutrophus H16 and of pRALTA from C. taiwanensis. Three putative genomic islands were discovered on pMOL28. One of them, CMGI-28a, carries heavy metal resistance genes (mer, cnr, and chr) and is flanked by IS1071 elements that have undergone further rearrangements stabilizing the island and its metal resistance determinants. The backbone of pMOL30 is related to the large plasmid pBVIE01 of Burkholderia vietnamiensis G4 with an especially high identity between the parAB genes. Plasmid pMOL30 contains two large putative genomic islands comprising most of the genes involved in the response or resistance to heavy metals: CMGI-30a with the czc, pbr, and mer genes and CMGI-30b with the sil and cop genes.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by a grant of ESA (European Space Agency) and Belgian Scientific Policy via the MISSEX project. The genome of C. metallidurans was sequenced by the Joint Genome Institute. Thanks are due to Claudine Medigue and the team of the MAGE Genoscope annotation platform for help and precious advice. We are also grateful to Daniel van der Lelie for comments and suggestions and to Pieter Monsieurs for statistic reassessment of transcriptomic data. The technical assistance of Ann Provoost and Albert Bossus is gratefully acknowledged.

The first author is deeply grateful to Ed Schwartz for his comprehension and patience in difficult circumstances.

This work is dedicated to the memory of Larissa Hendrickx (†3/3/2008) and of Jozef Gerits († 24/3/2008).

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  1. Molecular & Cellular Biology, Belgian Center for Nuclear Energy, SCK•CEN, 2400 MOL, Belgium

    Max Mergeay, Sébastien Monchy, Paul Janssen, Rob Van Houdt & Natalie Leys

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  1. Max Mergeay
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  1. Institut fuer Biologie, Mikrobiologie, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Chausseestr. 117, Berlin, 10115, Germany

    Edward Schwartz

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Mergeay, M., Monchy, S., Janssen, P., Houdt, R.V., Leys, N. (2009). Megaplasmids in Cupriavidus Genus and Metal Resistance. In: Schwartz, E. (eds) Microbial Megaplasmids. Microbiology Monographs, vol 11. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-85467-8_10

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