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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2007, p. 6988-6993, Vol. 73, No. 21
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01197-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Identification and Expression Analyses of Putative Sesquiterpene Synthase Genes in Phormidium sp. and Prevalence of geoA-Like Genes in a Drinking Water Reservoir{triangledown}

Frank Ludwig,1 Anja Medger,1 Hilmar Börnick,2 Michael Opitz,3 Kathrin Lang,4 Michael Göttfert,4 and Isolde Röske1*

Institute of Microbiology, Dresden University of Technology, 01062 Dresden, Germany,1 Institute of Water Chemistry, Dresden University of Technology, 01062 Dresden, Germany,2 Institute of Hydrobiology, Dresden University of Technology, 01062 Dresden, Germany,3 Institute of Genetics, Dresden University of Technology, 01062 Dresden, Germany4

Received 29 May 2007/ Accepted 20 August 2007

The occurrence of taste and odor problems in drinking water supplies is a widespread phenomenon. From a Saxonian water reservoir we isolated a cyanobacterial species which was classified as Phormidium sp. Under laboratory conditions it produced an earthy-musty smell due to the synthesis of geosmin. The only genes shown to be involved in geosmin biosynthesis are cyc2 and geoA of Streptomyces. Based on the alignment of Cyc2 with a putative sesquiterpene synthase of Nostoc punctiforme, a degenerate primer pair was designed. By PCR, we could amplify two similar genes in Phormidium sp., which we named geoA1 and geoA2. Their expression was studied by reverse transcription-PCR. This revealed that both genes are expressed at 20°C and a light-dark cycle of 12 h. Expression was not detectable at the end of a 24-h dark period. To analyze the prevalence of geoA1 and geoA2 in samples from the phytobenthos, we generated PCR fragments with the same degenerate primer pair. Fifty-five different sequences that might represent geoA variants were obtained. The GC content ranged from 42% to 67%, suggesting that taxonomically very different bacteria might contain such genes.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Institute of Microbiology, Dresden University of Technology, 01062 Dresden, Germany. Phone: 49 351 46332905. Fax: 49 351 46337715. E-mail: Isolde.Roeske{at}tu-dresden.de

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 7 September 2007.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2007, p. 6988-6993, Vol. 73, No. 21
0099-2240/07/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01197-07
Copyright © 2007, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Agger, S. A., Lopez-Gallego, F., Hoye, T. R., Schmidt-Dannert, C. (2008). Identification of Sesquiterpene Synthases from Nostoc punctiforme PCC 73102 and Nostoc sp. Strain PCC 7120. J. Bacteriol. 190: 6084-6096 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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