Trends of the major porin gene (ompF) evolution

OmpF is one of the major general porins of Enterobacteriaceae that belongs to the first line of bacterial defense and interactions with the biotic as well as abiotic environments. Porins are surface exposed and their structures strongly reflect the history of multiple interactions with the environmental challenges. Unfortunately, little is known on diversity of porin genes of Enterobacteriaceae and the genus Yersinia especially. We analyzed the sequences of the ompF gene from 73 Yersinia strains covering 14 known species. The phylogenetic analysis placed most of the Yersinia strains in the same line assigned by 16S rDNA-gyrB tree. Very high congruence in the tree topologies was observed for Y. enterocolitica, Y. kristensenii, Y. ruckeri, indicating that intragenic recombination in these species had no effect on the ompF gene. A significant level of intra- and interspecies recombination was found for Y. aleksiciae, Y. intermedia and Y. mollaretii. Our analysis shows that the ompF gene of Yersinia has evolved with nonrandom mutational rate under purifying selection. However, several surface loops in the OmpF porin contain positively selected sites, which very likely reflect adaptive diversification Yersinia to their ecological niches. To our knowledge, this is a first investigation of diversity of the porin gene covering the whole genus of the family Enterobacteriaceae. This study demonstrates that recombination and positive selection both contribute to evolution of ompF, but the relative contribution of these evolutionary forces are different among Yersinia species

Trends of the Major Porin Gene (ompF) Evolution: Insight from the Genus Yersinia

OmpF is one of the major general porins of Enterobacteriaceae that belongs to the first line of bacterial defense and interactions with the biotic as well as abiotic environments. Porins are surface exposed and their structures strongly reflect the history of multiple interactions with the environmental challenges. Unfortunately, little is known on diversity of porin genes of Enterobacteriaceae and the genus Yersinia especially. We analyzed the sequences of the ompF gene from 73 Yersinia strains covering 14 known species. The phylogenetic analysis placed most of the Yersinia strains in the same line assigned by 16S rDNA-gyrB tree. Very high congruence in the tree topologies was observed for Y. enterocolitica, Y. kristensenii, Y. ruckeri, indicating that intragenic recombination in these species had no effect on the ompF gene. A significant level of intra- and interspecies recombination was found for Y. aleksiciae, Y. intermedia and Y. mollaretii. Our analysis shows that the ompF gene of Yersinia has evolved with nonrandom mutational rate under purifying selection. However, several surface loops in the OmpF porin contain positively selected sites, which very likely reflect adaptive diversification Yersinia to their ecological niches. To our knowledge, this is a first investigation of diversity of the porin gene covering the whole genus of the family Enterobacteriaceae. This study demonstrates that recombination and positive selection both contribute to evolution of ompF, but the relative contribution of these evolutionary forces are different among Yersinia species

The spotted gar genome illuminates vertebrate evolution and facilitates human-teleost comparisons

To connect human biology to fish biomedical models, we sequenced the genome of spotted gar (Lepisosteus oculatus), whose lineage diverged from teleosts before teleost genome duplication (TGD). The slowly evolving gar genome has conserved in content and size many entire chromosomes from bony vertebrate ancestors. Gar bridges teleosts to tetrapods by illuminating the evolution of immunity, mineralization and development (mediated, for example, by Hox, ParaHox and microRNA genes). Numerous conserved noncoding elements (CNEs; often cis regulatory) undetectable in direct human-teleost comparisons become apparent using gar: functional studies uncovered conserved roles for such cryptic CNEs, facilitating annotation of sequences identified in human genome-wide association studies. Transcriptomic analyses showed that the sums of expression domains and expression levels for duplicated teleost genes often approximate the patterns and levels of expression for gar genes, consistent with subfunctionalization. The gar genome provides a resource for understanding evolution after genome duplication, the origin of vertebrate genomes and the function of human regulatory sequences

Tolerance to cadmium of free-living and associated with marine animals and eelgrass marine gamma-proteobacteria

The tolerance to Cd2+ and possible mechanisms of Cd2+ detoxification by 178 free-living bacteria isolated from sea water, associated with marine animals (a mussel Crenomytilus grayanus, a scallop Patinopecten yessoensis), and eelgrass Zostera marina collected in The Sea of Japan and The Sea of Okhotsk have been studied. The concentrations of 25 and 50 mg Cd2+/L were highly toxic and inhibited the growth from 54% to 78% of the total bacteria studied. The free-living bacteria isolated from seawater samples (up to 50%) were tolerant to high concentrations of cadmium. Marine gamma-proteobacteria tolerated Cd2+ by the activation of different detoxifying mechanisms. The strain Halomonas sp. KMM 734 isolated from seawater prevented the uptake of Cd2+ into bacterial cells. The chromosomal cadmium resistance system of Pseudoalteromonas citrea KMM 461 and Marinobacter sp. KMM 181 was found to be similar to class III metallothioneins (also known as phytochelatins)

Location of positively selected sites in OmpF porins of <i>Yersinia</i>.

<p>Group VII-<i>Y. enterocolitica</i> WA220; Group XIII-<i>Y. intermedia</i> 1948; Group IX-<i>Y. frederiksenii</i> 4648; Group I-<i>Y. intermedia</i> ATCC 29909; Group X-<i>Y. kristensenii</i> 5868; Group VIII-<i>Y. pseudotuberculosis</i> IP 31758. Sites that show positive selection (P<0.05) are depicted as yellow spheres and (P<0.01)-as red spheres.</p

Phylogenetic relationships among 16S rDNA-<i>gyrB</i> sequences of <i>Yersinia</i>.

<p>The unrooted dendrogram was generated using neighbour-joining algorithm. The evolutionary distances were computed using the Kimura 2-parameter method and are expressed in number of base substitutions per site. The percentages of replicate trees in which the associated taxa clustered together in the bootstrap test are shown in nodes.</p

Phylogenetic relationships among <i>ompF</i> sequences of <i>Yersinia</i>.

<p>The unrooted dendrogram was generated using neighbour-joining algorithm. The evolutionary distances were computed using the Kimura 2-parameter method and are expressed in number of base substitutions per site. The percentages of replicate trees in which the associated taxa clustered together in the bootstrap test are shown in nodes.</p

Nucleotide divergence (Pi) in 73 <i>ompF</i> sequences.

<p>The regions predicted to correspond to the external loops (L1–L8) are colored green, regions putatively exposed to the periplasm and predicted transmembrane strands (1-16β) are indicated by black shading, the signal sequence (Sig.s.) is colored blue.</p

Schematic representation of recombination events with brake-points location in the <i>ompF</i> gene of <i>Yersinia</i>.

<p>Schematic representation of recombination events with brake-points location in the <i>ompF</i> gene of <i>Yersinia</i>.</p

Structure and properties of exotic nano- and mesodiamonds with pentagonal symmetry

A comprehensive critical survey of structures of exotic nano-, meso- and microdiamonds with dodecahedral and icosahedral symmetry (N/MDPS) is presented. Due to their high dodecahedral or icosahedral symmetry, the unique complex atomic and electronic structure of N/MDPS leads to transport and mechanical properties very promising for photonic, quantum, and nanomechanical applications. To explain the nature of diamonds, theoretical models have been proposed based on the formation of twinned structures consisting of either 5 or 20 symmetrically equivalent tetrahedral and prismatic fragments of the face-centered cubic lattice with the formation of star-shaped or icosahedral clusters, respectively. It has been shown that these twinned nano- and mesodiamonds have limited dimensions due to accumulation of uncompensated structural stresses arising from the deviation of the angles between diamond facets from perfect 72 degrees in tetrahedral fragments of the face-centered cubic lattice to 70.5 degrees between five symmetrically equivalent twinned fragments