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Journal of Bacteriology, August 2008, p. 5455-5463, Vol. 190, No. 15
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01701-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Insights into Plant Cell Wall Degradation from the Genome Sequence of the Soil Bacterium Cellvibrio japonicus{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Robert T. DeBoy,1*,{ddagger} Emmanuel F. Mongodin,1,{ddagger} Derrick E. Fouts,1,{ddagger} Louise E. Tailford,2,§ Hoda Khouri,1 Joanne B. Emerson,1,¶ Yasmin Mohamoud,1 Kisha Watkins,1 Bernard Henrissat,3 Harry J. Gilbert,2 and Karen E. Nelson1,4

J. Craig Venter Institute, 9712 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, Maryland 20850,1 Institute for Cell and Molecular Biosciences, Newcastle University, The Medical School, Newcastle upon Tyne NE2 4HH, United Kingdom,2 Architecture et Fonction des Macromolécules Biologiques, UMR6098, CNRS and University of Aix-Marseille I & II, 13288 Marseille, France,3 Department of Biology, Howard University, 415 College Street, N.W., Washington, DC 200594

Received 23 October 2007/ Accepted 20 May 2008

The plant cell wall, which consists of a highly complex array of interconnecting polysaccharides, is the most abundant source of organic carbon in the biosphere. Microorganisms that degrade the plant cell wall synthesize an extensive portfolio of hydrolytic enzymes that display highly complex molecular architectures. To unravel the intricate repertoire of plant cell wall-degrading enzymes synthesized by the saprophytic soil bacterium Cellvibrio japonicus, we sequenced and analyzed its genome, which predicts that the bacterium contains the complete repertoire of enzymes required to degrade plant cell wall and storage polysaccharides. Approximately one-third of these putative proteins (57) are predicted to contain carbohydrate binding modules derived from 13 of the 49 known families. Sequence analysis reveals approximately 130 predicted glycoside hydrolases that target the major structural and storage plant polysaccharides. In common with that of the colonic prokaryote Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron, the genome of C. japonicus is predicted to encode a large number of GH43 enzymes, suggesting that the extensive arabinose decorations appended to pectins and xylans may represent a major nutrient source, not just for intestinal bacteria but also for microorganisms that occupy terrestrial ecosystems. The results presented here predict that C. japonicus possesses an extensive range of glycoside hydrolases, lyases, and esterases. Most importantly, the genome of C. japonicus is remarkably similar to that of the gram-negative marine bacterium, Saccharophagus degradans 2-40T. Approximately 50% of the predicted C. japonicus plant-degradative apparatus appears to be shared with S. degradans, consistent with the utilization of plant-derived complex carbohydrates as a major substrate by both organisms.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: J. Craig Venter Institute, 9712 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850. Phone: (301) 795-7980. Fax: (301) 838-0208. E-mail: rdeboy{at}jcvi.org

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 13 June 2008.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

{ddagger} These authors contributed equally to this work.

§ Present address: Institute of Food Research, Norwich Research Park, Colney, Norwich, NR4 7UA, United Kingdom.

Present address: University of California, Berkeley, Department of Earth and Planetary Science, 307 McCone Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720-4767.

Journal of Bacteriology, August 2008, p. 5455-5463, Vol. 190, No. 15
0021-9193/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01701-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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