JB Accepts, published online ahead of print on 8 May 2009

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J. Bacteriol. doi:10.1128/JB.00504-09
Copyright (c) 2009, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

The genome sequence of Azotobacter vinelandii, an obligate aerobe specialized to support diverse anaerobic metabolic processes

João C. Setubal^*, Patricia dos Santos, Barry S. Goldman, Helga Ertesvåg, Guadelupe Espin, Luis M. Rubio, Svein Valla, Nalvo F. Almeida, Divya Balasubramanian, Lindsey Cromes, Leonardo Curatti, Zijin Du, Eric Godsy, Brad Goodner, Kaitlyn Hellner-Burris, José A. Hernandez, Katherine Houmiel, Juan Imperial, Christina Kennedy, Timothy J. Larson, Phil Latreille, Lauren S. Ligon, Jing Lu, Mali Mærk, Nancy M. Miller, Stacie Norton, Ina P. O'Carroll, Ian Paulsen, Estella C. Raulfs, Rebecca Roemer, James Rosser, Daniel Segura, Steve Slater, Shawn L. Stricklin, David J. Studholme, Jian Sun, Carlos J. Viana, Erik Wallin, Baomin Wang, Cathy Wheeler, Huijun Zhu, Dennis R. Dean, Ray Dixon, and Derek Wood

Virginia Bioinformatics Institute, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061; Department of Computer Science, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061; Department of Chemistry, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, 27109; Monsanto Company; Department of Biotechnology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491Trondheim, Norway; Instituto de Biotecnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Cuernavaca Morelos, Mexico; IMDEA Energia, Centro de Biotecnologia y Genomica de Plantas, Madrid 28223, Spain; Departmento de Computacao e Estatistica, Universidade Federal do Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande, Brazil; Department of Biology, Hiram College, OH; CONICET-FIBA, Centro de Estudios de Biodiversidad y Biotecnologia, Mar del Plata 7600, Argentina; Department of Biochemistry, Midwestern University, Glendale, AZ 85308; Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA 98026; Department of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721; Department of Biochemistry, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061; Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia; Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI; The Sainsbury Laboratory, Colney Lane, Norwich NR4 7UH, United Kingdom; Department of Molecular Microbiology, John Innes Centre, Norwich NR4 7UH, United Kingdom; Department of Microbiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98119

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: setubal{at}vbi.vt.edu.

Azotobacter vinelandii is a soil bacterium related to the Pseudomonas genus that fixes nitrogen under aerobic conditions while simultaneously protecting nitrogenase from oxygen damage. In response to carbon availability this organism undergoes a simple differentiation process to form cysts that are resistant to drought and other physical and chemical agents. Here we report the complete genome sequence of A. vinelandii DJ, which has a single circular genome of 5,365,318 bp. In order to reconcile an obligate aerobic lifestyle with exquisitely oxygen-sensitive processes, A. vinelandii is specialized in terms of its complement of respiratory proteins. It is able to produce alginate, a polymer that further protects the organism from excess exogenous oxygen, and it has multiple duplications of alginate modification genes, which may alter alginate composition in response to oxygen availability. The genome analysis identified the chromosomal location of the three known oxygen-sensitive nitrogenases and as well as genes coding for other oxygen-sensitive enzymes, such as carbon monoxide dehydrogenase and formate dehydrogenase. These findings offer new prospects for the wider application of A. vinelandii as a host for the production and characterization of oxygen-sensitive proteins.

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