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Conservation of the chitin utilization pathway in the Vibrionaceae.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Hunt, DE; Gevers, D; Vahora, NM; Polz, MF
Published in: Applied and environmental microbiology
January 2008

Vibrionaceae are regarded as important marine chitin degraders, and attachment to chitin regulates important biological functions; yet, the degree of chitin pathway conservation in Vibrionaceae is unknown. Here, a core chitin degradation pathway is proposed based on comparison of 19 Vibrio and Photobacterium genomes with a detailed metabolic map assembled for V. cholerae from published biochemical, genomic, and transcriptomic results. Further, to assess whether chitin degradation is a conserved property of Vibrionaceae, a set of 54 strains from 32 taxa were tested for the ability to grow on various forms of chitin. All strains grew on N-acetylglucosamine (GlcNAc), the monomer of chitin. The majority of isolates grew on alpha (crab shell) and beta (squid pen) chitin and contained chitinase A (chiA) genes. chiA sequencing and phylogenetic analysis suggest that this gene is a good indicator of chitin metabolism but appears subject to horizontal gene transfer and duplication. Overall, chitin metabolism appears to be a core function of Vibrionaceae, but individual pathway components exhibit dynamic evolutionary histories.

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Published In

Applied and environmental microbiology

DOI

EISSN

1098-5336

ISSN

0099-2240

Publication Date

January 2008

Volume

74

Issue

1

Start / End Page

44 / 51

Related Subject Headings

  • Vibrionaceae
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Phylogeny
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Microbiology
  • Metabolic Networks and Pathways
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • Conserved Sequence
  • Chitinases
  • Chitin
 

Citation

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Hunt, D. E., Gevers, D., Vahora, N. M., & Polz, M. F. (2008). Conservation of the chitin utilization pathway in the Vibrionaceae. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 74(1), 44–51. https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.01412-07
Hunt, Dana E., Dirk Gevers, Nisha M. Vahora, and Martin F. Polz. “Conservation of the chitin utilization pathway in the Vibrionaceae.Applied and Environmental Microbiology 74, no. 1 (January 2008): 44–51. https://doi.org/10.1128/aem.01412-07.
Hunt DE, Gevers D, Vahora NM, Polz MF. Conservation of the chitin utilization pathway in the Vibrionaceae. Applied and environmental microbiology. 2008 Jan;74(1):44–51.
Hunt, Dana E., et al. “Conservation of the chitin utilization pathway in the Vibrionaceae.Applied and Environmental Microbiology, vol. 74, no. 1, Jan. 2008, pp. 44–51. Epmc, doi:10.1128/aem.01412-07.
Hunt DE, Gevers D, Vahora NM, Polz MF. Conservation of the chitin utilization pathway in the Vibrionaceae. Applied and environmental microbiology. 2008 Jan;74(1):44–51.

Published In

Applied and environmental microbiology

DOI

EISSN

1098-5336

ISSN

0099-2240

Publication Date

January 2008

Volume

74

Issue

1

Start / End Page

44 / 51

Related Subject Headings

  • Vibrionaceae
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Phylogeny
  • Molecular Sequence Data
  • Microbiology
  • Metabolic Networks and Pathways
  • DNA, Bacterial
  • Conserved Sequence
  • Chitinases
  • Chitin