Microbial Observatories: Evolution and Diversity of Biochemical Pathways: A Methylotrophic Microbial Observatory

华盛顿大学的玛丽·利德斯特伦博士和柳德米拉·奇斯托瑟多娃博士获得了一笔赠款，用于研究一组对环境具有重要意义的细菌的多样性，这些细菌生长在含有一个碳的简单化合物上。 这些被称为甲基营养菌的细菌已经开发出独特的生化途径，使它们能够在甲烷（天然气），甲醇（木材酒精）和各种大气污染物（如溴甲烷和氯甲烷）等化合物上生长。 迄今为止的证据表明，这些生化途径是通过从其他细菌借用基因和创造甲基营养特有的新性状的组合而进化的。 该项目将采用的方法是以比较的方式使用甲基营养型细菌和其他细菌的少数已知基因组序列，以了解这些细菌的共享和独特方面。 将研究实验室培养物和环境中的甲基营养菌自然种群，以最大限度地提高采样的多样性，并将对未培养的环境甲基营养菌的部分基因组进行鉴定和测序。 这项工作将为自然栖息地中负责一碳化合物循环的复杂群落提供见解。这些细菌在保持自然栖息地健康和繁荣方面发挥着重要作用，此外，它们是地球上许多导致全球变暖的化合物的主要消费者。 了解哪些甲基营养菌存在于特定环境中，并将这些信息与它们的自然作用联系起来，是准确预测自然资源利用与全球气候变化（如全球变暖）之间关系的重要一步。 此外，将进行的比较基因组学研究将深入了解专门代谢途径的演变。 这些进化方法对于从基因组序列到理解细胞如何工作的飞跃非常重要。

A grant has been awarded to Drs. Mary Lidstrom and Ludmila Chistoserdova at the University of Washington to investigate the breadth of diversity in an environmentally important group of bacteria, those that grow on simple compounds containing one carbon. These bacteria, called methylotrophs, have developed unique biochemical pathways that allow them to grow on compounds such as methane (natural gas), methanol (wood alcohol), and a variety of atmospheric pollutants such as bromomethane and chloromethane. Evidence to date suggests that these biochemical pathways evolved through a combination of borrowing genes from other bacteria and creating new traits specific to methylotrophy. The approach that will be taken in this project is to use the few known genome sequences for methylotrophic bacteria and other bacteria in a comparative way to develop an understanding of the shared and unique aspects of these bacteria. Both laboratory cultures and natural populations of methylotrophs from the environment will be studied, to maximize the diversity that is sampled, and partial genomes from uncultured environmental methylotrophs will be identified and sequenced. This work will provide insights into the complex communities in natural habitats that are responsible for the cycling of one-carbon compounds. These bacteria play an important role in keeping natural habitats healthy and thriving, and in addition they are the main consumers on earth of a number of compounds that contribute to global warming. Understanding which methylotrophs are present in specific environments and relating such information to their natural roles is an important step in developing accurate predictions regarding the relationship between natural resource utilization and global conditions such as global warming. In addition, the comparative genomics studies that will be carried out will provide insights into the evolution of specialized metabolic pathways. These evolutionary approaches are important for making the leap from genome sequences to understanding how cells work.