The Complete Genome Sequence of Cupriavidus metallidurans Strain CH34, a Master Survivalist in Harsh and Anthropogenic Environments

Many bacteria in the environment have adapted to the presence of toxic heavy metals. Over the last 30 years, this heavy metal tolerance was the subject of extensive research. The bacterium Cupriavidus metallidurans strain CH34, originally isolated by us in 1976 from a metal processing factory, is considered a major model organism in this field because it withstands milli-molar range concentrations of over 20 different heavy metal ions. This tolerance is mostly achieved by rapid ion efflux but also by metal-complexation and -reduction. We present here the full genome sequence of strain CH34 and the manual annotation of all its genes. The genome of C. metallidurans CH34 is composed of two large circular chromosomes CHR1 and CHR2 of, respectively, 3,928,089 bp and 2,580,084 bp, and two megaplasmids pMOL28 and pMOL30 of, respectively, 171,459 bp and 233,720 bp in size. At least 25 loci for heavy-metal resistance (HMR) are distributed over the four replicons. Approximately 67% of the 6,717 coding sequences (CDSs) present in the CH34 genome could be assigned a putative function, and 9.1% (611 genes) appear to be unique to this strain. One out of five proteins is associated with either transport or transcription while the relay of environmental stimuli is governed by more than 600 signal transduction systems. The CH34 genome is most similar to the genomes of other Cupriavidus strains by correspondence between the respective CHR1 replicons but also displays similarity to the genomes of more distantly related species as a result of gene transfer and through the presence of large genomic islands. The presence of at least 57 IS elements and 19 transposons and the ability to take in and express foreign genes indicates a very dynamic and complex genome shaped by evolutionary forces. The genome data show that C. metallidurans CH34 is particularly well equipped to live in extreme conditions and anthropogenic environments that are rich in metals

The metabolic pathway of 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic degradation involves different families of tfdA genes according to PCR-RFLP analysis

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The development of a brief version of the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire

The increasing interest between religiosity and health benefits has created the need for a brief, reliable, valid, and practical instrument to measure strength of religious faith. The purpose of this study is to develop a brief version of the Santa Clara Strength of Religious Faith Questionnaire (SCSRFQ). The SCSRFQ has been reduced from a ten-item questionnaire to a five-item scale, making it more suitable for administration to severely ill patients and for use in large-scale epidemiological studies. To create the brief version, 1584 participants completed the SCSRFQ. Results were evaluated for high correlation coefficients between individual item responses and the overall total 10 questions from the original scale. Items to be used in the abbreviated version were also selected on the basis of having moderate and centered means and high standard deviations. Thus, the items selected for the brief version generally correlated highly with the total score for the longer questionnaire and provided adequate variability. The reduced version, using questions 2, 4, 5, 8, and 10 of the original scale provides a \u3e 0.95 correlation with results from the longer version

Evaluation of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis in the detection of 16S rDNA sequence variation in rhizobia and methanotrophs

The ability of denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) technique to resolve 16S rDNA products generated from two different collections of bacteria using universal 16S primers was investigated. Alignments of 16S rDNA sequences of known species of rhizobia and methanotrophs were performed in order to determine the genetic variations within a 200 bp product obtained with PCR primers which amplify the 16S rRNA encoding genes from Eubacteria. Theoretical DNA melting curves were obtained with the Melt87 program and found to correlate with the ability to resolve fragments by DGGE. In the case of the rhizobia, the inability of DGGE analysis to resolve the PCR products from closely related species was in accordance with the low polymorphism observed amongst the sequences in the amplified area. In the case of the methanotrophs, the PCR products were surprisingly difficult to resolve given the high degree of sequence polymorphism of the amplified area in some distantly related species. The difference in sequence divergence within the two groups members allowed therefore to scale the resolution ability of the DGGE technique