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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2005, p. 2955-2961, Vol. 71, No. 6
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.6.2955-2961.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Indications for Acquisition of Reductive Dehalogenase Genes through Horizontal Gene Transfer by Dehalococcoides ethenogenes Strain 195

Christophe Regeard,1,{dagger} Julien Maillard,1 Christine Dufraigne,2 Patrick Deschavanne,2,{ddagger} and Christof Holliger1*

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), ENAC-Laboratory for Environmental Biotechnology, 1015 Lausanne, Switzerland,1 INSERM U494, 91 bd de l'Hôpital, 75634 Paris Cedex 13, France2

Received 6 May 2004/ Accepted 17 December 2004

The genome of Dehalococcoides ethenogenes strain 195, an anaerobic dehalorespiring bacterium, contains 18 copies of putative reductive dehalogenase genes, including the well-characterized tceA gene, whose gene product functions as the key enzyme in the environmentally important dehalorespiration process. The genome of D. ethenogenes was analyzed using a bioinformatic tool based on the frequency of oligonucleotides. The results in the form of a genomic signature revealed several local disruptions of the host signature along the genome sequence. These fractures represent DNA segments of potentially foreign origin, so-called atypical regions, which may have been acquired by an ancestor through horizontal gene transfer. Most interestingly, 15 of the 18 reductive dehalogenase genes, including the tceA gene, were found to be located in these regions, strongly indicating the foreign nature of the dehalorespiration activity. The GC content and the presence of recombinase genes within some of these regions corroborate this hypothesis. A hierarchical classification of the atypical regions containing the reductive dehalogenase genes indicated that these regions were probably acquired by several gene transfer events.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL), ENAC-Laboratory for Environmental Biotechnology, Btiment CH-B Ecublens, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland. Phone: 41-21-6934724. Fax: 41-21-6934722. E-mail: christof.holliger{at}epfl.ch.

{dagger} Present address: CNRS UMR 8621, Institut de Génétique et Microbiologie, Btiment 409, Université Paris Sud, 91405 Orsay, France.

{ddagger} Present address: EGBM, INSERM E 03-46, Université Paris 7, 2 place Jussieu, 75251 Paris Cedex 05, France.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, June 2005, p. 2955-2961, Vol. 71, No. 6
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.6.2955-2961.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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