New insights into metabolic properties of marine bacteria encoding proteorhodopsins

Gazalah Sabehi, Alexander Loy, Kwang Hwan Jung, Ranga Partha, John L. Spudich, Tal Isaacson, Joseph Hirschberg, Michael Wagner, Oded Béjà

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

199 Scopus citations

Abstract

Proteorhodopsin phototrophy was recently discovered in oceanic surface waters. In an effort to characterize uncultured proteorhodopsin-exploiting bacteria, large-insert bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) libraries from the Mediterranean Sea and Red Sea were analyzed. Fifty-five BACs carried diverse proteorhodopsin genes, and we confirmed the function of five. We calculate that proteorhodopsin-exploiting bacteria account for 13% of microorganisms in the photic zone. We further show that some proteorhodopsin-containing bacteria possess a retinal biosynthetic pathway and a reverse sulfite reductase operon, employed by prokaryotes oxidizing sulfur compounds. Thus, these novel phototrophs are an unexpectedly large and metabolically diverse component of the marine microbial surface water.

Original languageEnglish
JournalPLoS Biology
Volume3
Issue number8
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2005

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'New insights into metabolic properties of marine bacteria encoding proteorhodopsins'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this