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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2006, p. 2730-2737, Vol. 72, No. 4
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.72.4.2730-2737.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

A Suppression Subtractive Hybridization Approach Reveals Niche-Specific Genes That May Be Involved in Predator Avoidance in Marine Synechococcus Isolates

H. Jones, M. Ostrowski, and D. J. Scanlan*

Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom

Received 31 October 2005/ Accepted 2 February 2006

Picocyanobacteria of the genus Synechococcus are important contributors to marine primary production and are ubiquitous in the world's oceans. This genus is genetically diverse, and at least 10 discrete lineages or clades have been identified phylogenetically. However, little if anything is known about the genetic attributes which characterize particular lineages or are unique to specific strains. Here, we used a suppression subtractive hybridization (SSH) approach to identify strain- and clade-specific genes in two well-characterized laboratory strains, Synechococcus sp. strain WH8103 (clade III) and Synechococcus sp. strain WH7803 (clade V). Among the genes that were identified as potentially unique to each strain were genes encoding proteins that may be involved in specific predator avoidance, including a glycosyltransferase in strain WH8103 and a permease component of an ABC-type polysaccharide/polyol phosphate export system in WH7803. During this work the genome of one of these strains, WH7803, became available. This allowed assessment of the number of false-positive sequences (i.e., sequences present in the tester genome) present among the SSH-enriched sequences. We found that approximately 9% of the WH8103 sequences were potential false-positive sequences, which demonstrated that caution should be used when this technology is used to assess genomic differences in genetically similar bacterial strains.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Warwick, Gibbet Hill Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 24 76 528363. Fax: 44 24 76 523701. E-mail: D.J.Scanlan{at}warwick.ac.uk.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, April 2006, p. 2730-2737, Vol. 72, No. 4
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.72.4.2730-2737.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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