Adaptation in Toxic Environments: Arsenic Genomic Islands in the Bacterial Genus Thiomonas

Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a highly toxic environment for most living organisms due to the presence of many lethal elements including arsenic (As). Thiomonas (Tm.) bacteria are found ubiquitously in AMD and can withstand these extreme conditions, in part because they are able to oxidize arsenite. I...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2015-09, Vol.10 (9), p.e0139011
Main Authors: Freel, Kelle C, Krueger, Martin C, Farasin, Julien, Brochier-Armanet, Céline, Barbe, Valérie, Andrès, Jeremy, Cholley, Pierre-Etienne, Dillies, Marie-Agnès, Jagla, Bernd, Koechler, Sandrine, Leva, Yann, Magdelenat, Ghislaine, Plewniak, Frédéric, Proux, Caroline, Coppée, Jean-Yves, Bertin, Philippe N, Heipieper, Hermann J, Arsène-Ploetze, Florence
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acid mine drainage
Adaptation
Arsenic
Arsenic compounds
Arsenite
Bacteria
Biofilms
Burkholderiaceae
Burkholderiaceae - genetics
Burkholderiaceae - isolation & purification
Deoxyribonucleic acid
DNA
Environmental aspects
Evolution
Genes
Genome, Bacterial
Genomes
Genomic islands
Life Sciences
Oxidation
Oxidation resistance
Phylogenetics
Physiological aspects
Sewage
Strains (organisms)
Thiomonas
Water Microbiology
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Summary:Acid mine drainage (AMD) is a highly toxic environment for most living organisms due to the presence of many lethal elements including arsenic (As). Thiomonas (Tm.) bacteria are found ubiquitously in AMD and can withstand these extreme conditions, in part because they are able to oxidize arsenite. In order to further improve our knowledge concerning the adaptive capacities of these bacteria, we sequenced and assembled the genome of six isolates derived from the Carnoulès AMD, and compared them to the genomes of Tm. arsenitoxydans 3As (isolated from the same site) and Tm. intermedia K12 (isolated from a sewage pipe). A detailed analysis of the Tm. sp. CB2 genome revealed various rearrangements had occurred in comparison to what was observed in 3As and K12 and over 20 genomic islands (GEIs) were found in each of these three genomes. We performed a detailed comparison of the two arsenic-related islands found in CB2, carrying the genes required for arsenite oxidation and As resistance, with those found in K12, 3As, and five other Thiomonas strains also isolated from Carnoulès (CB1, CB3, CB6, ACO3 and ACO7). Our results suggest that these arsenic-related islands have evolved differentially in these closely related Thiomonas strains, leading to divergent capacities to survive in As rich environments.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0139011