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Environmental Metagenome Research Team

Environmental Metagenome Research Team

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Press release

Jan. 18, 2012

Genomic Analysis of Deeply Branching Thermophile
 Provides Clues to Early Life on Earth

 

Metagenomic analysis of the microbial community in the hot stream of a Japanese epithermal mine revealed that Candidatus ‘Acetothermus autotrophicum’ (Ca. ‘A. autotrophicum’), an uncultivated thermophilic bacterium, was keeping an ancient metabolic pathway for CO2 fixation and energy generation, known as acetyl-CoA pathway. The acetyl-CoA pathway is considered to have been inherited from the last universal common ancestor (LUCA), a cell from which all life has evolved. Bacteria and Archaea are believed to have evolved from LUCA. 
Phylogenetic trees based on proteins conserved in bacteria and archaea showed that Ca. ‘A. autotrophicum’ is very near to their common ancestor. Ca. ‘A. autotrophicum’ also retains a thermostable bifunctional fructose 1,6-bisphosphate (FBP) aldolase/phosphatase, a gluconeogenic enzyme assumed to work effectively in the early Earth environments. This suggests that Ca. ‘A. Autotrophicum’ is the archaeorganism still retaining functional properties of early life on Earth.
These results will considered to become direct evidence showing the existence of the functional traits in the first free-living (autotrophic) bacterial and archaeal ancestors, and provide new insights into the dawn of life to the earliest phases of evolution from the genomic point of view.

The study has just been published on January 27, 2012 in the online journal of Public Library of Science ONE (PLoS ONE), vol. 7, e30559 by Takami et al.

 

Title: A deeply branching thermophilic bacterium with an ancient acetyl-CoA pathway dominates a subsurface ecosystem.

Authors: Hideto Takami1・, Hideki Noguchi2・, Yoshihiro Takaki1・, Ikuo Uchiyama3・, Atsushi Toyoda4・, Shinro Nishi1・, Gab-Joo Chee1・, Wataru Arai1・, Takuro Nunoura1・, Takehiko Itoh2・, Masahira Hattori5・, and Ken Takai1

 

  1. Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC)
  2. Department of Biological Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology
  3. Laboratory of Genome Informatics, National Institute for Basic Biology, National Institutes of Natural Sciences
  4. National Institute of Genetics
  5. The University of Tokyo

Please visit the following website for details.

(http://www.jamstec.go.jp/e/about/press_release/20120127/)

 



Collaborative Research

We started the collaborative research from this year with the following research institutes.

 

  • Atmosphere and Ocean Research Institute, The University of Tokyo (2011-2012)

TITLE: Development of method for assessment of ocean environment by metagenomic information corresponding to the microbial diversity

  • National Institute for Basic Biology (2011-2012)

Title: Bioinformatics of environmental metagenome




Book chapter

More details

Published in January

Genomics and Evolution of
Alkaliphilic Bacillus Species

Hideto Takami
Institute of Biogeosciences, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Yokosuka, Japan

  • Phylogenetic Placement of Alkaliphilic Bacilli Among Bacillus-Related Species
  • Determination of Genome Sequences of Alkaliphilic Bacilli
    ⁄ Whole-Genome Shotgun Sequencing of Alkaliphilic Bacilli
    ⁄ Gene Finding and Annotation
  • Genomic Features of Alkaliphilic Bacilli
    ⁄ B. halodurans
      General Features
      Transcription and Translation
      Cell Walls
      Membrane Transport and Energy Generation
      ABC Transporters
      IS Elements
      Group II Introns
      Bacteriophage
    ⁄ O. iheyensis
      General Features
      IS Elements and Transposon
      Group II Introns
  • Bacilli-Wide Distribution of IS Elements and Group II Introns Derived from B. halodurans C-125
  • Orthologous Analysis of the Genome Bacillus-Related Species
  • Candidate Genes Involved in Alkaliphily