Catabolic genes and mobile elements of bacterial endophytes

我们依靠这个世界上的细菌来处理我们的垃圾。它们完成了将有机废物和有毒化学物质转化为二氧化碳、水和矿物盐的基本组成部分的大部分工作，这些物质将被重建为生命形式和食物。细菌生活在所有有水的环境中。这几乎包括所有植物的组织，它们在那里生活和获得营养，在某些情况下为植物提供保护、生长刺激，甚至清除毒素。这里提出的研究解决了一些基本的问题，即植物中的细菌，即细菌内生菌，以及它们分解污染物的能力：内生菌对特定植物物种的专一性有多大？植物寄主是否决定了内生菌可以分解哪些有机化合物？与它们所在的物种相比，它们生长的地点有多重要？在植物环境中，细菌之间可以发生多少基因转移？我们通过观察污染和非污染地点植物中的细菌来提出这些问题。我们还研究了一种特定的细菌，已知与植物有关，它携带重要的毒素降解基因，并调查这些基因是如何在细菌之间表达和共享的。

We depend on the bacteria of this world to dispose of our garbage. They do most of the work of transforming organic waste and toxic chemicals into the basic building blocks of carbon dioxide, water and mineral salts to be rebuilt into life forms and food. Bacteria live in all environments that have water. This includes the tissues of virtually all plants, where they live and obtain nutrition, and in some cases provide the plant with protection, growth stimulation and even toxin removal. The research proposed here addresses some basic questions about the bacteria within plants, known as bacterial endophytes, and their abilities to break down pollutants: How specific are endophytes to particular plant species? Does the plant host determine what organic compounds endophytes can break down? How important is the site that they grow in versus the species they are in? When in the plant environment, how much genetic transfer can occur between bacteria? We ask these questions by looking at the bacteria in plants from polluted and non-polluted sites. We also look at a particular species of bacteria, known to associate with plants, that carries importance toxin-degrading genes, and investigate how those genes are expressed and shared between bacteria.