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PMID: 14566062 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

The genome of Nanoarchaeum equitans: insights into early archaeal evolution and derived parasitism.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America ·Vol. 100 ·No. 22 ·2003-10-28 ·Pages 12984-8

Waters E, Hohn MJ, Ahel I, Graham DE, Adams MD, Barnstead M, Beeson KY, Bibbs L, Bolanos R, Keller M, Kretz K, Lin X, Mathur E, Ni J, Podar M, Richardson T, Sutton GG, Simon M, Soll D, Stetter KO, Short JM, Noordewier M

Abstract

The hyperthermophile Nanoarchaeum equitans is an obligate symbiont growing in coculture with the crenarchaeon Ignicoccus. Ribosomal protein and rRNA-based phylogenies place its branching point early in the archaeal lineage, representing the new archaeal kingdom Nanoarchaeota. The N. equitans genome (490,885 base pairs) encodes the machinery for information processing and repair, but lacks genes for lipid, cofactor, amino acid, or nucleotide biosyntheses. It is the smallest microbial genome sequenced to date, and also one of the most compact, with 95% of the DNA predicted to encode proteins or stable RNAs. Its limited biosynthetic and catabolic capacity indicates that N. equitans' symbiotic relationship to Ignicoccus is parasitic, making it the only known archaeal parasite. Unlike the small genomes of bacterial parasites that are undergoing reductive evolution, N. equitans has few pseudogenes or extensive regions of noncoding DNA. This organism represents a basal archaeal lineage and has a highly reduced genome.

Keywords
Non-programmatic
MeSH Terms
Arabidopsis/microbiology Archaea/classification,genetics,pathogenicity Biological Evolution DNA, Archaeal/genetics Gene Library Genome, Archaeal Phylogeny
Chemicals
DNA, Archaeal
Authors & Affiliations
22 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Waters Elizabeth
Diversa Corporation, 4955 Directors Place, San Diego, CA 92121, USA.
Hohn Michael J
Ahel Ivan
Graham David E
Adams Mark D
Barnstead Mary
Beeson Karen Y
Bibbs Lisa
Bolanos Randall
Keller Martin
Kretz Keith
Lin Xiaoying
Mathur Eric
Ni Jingwei
Podar Mircea
Richardson Toby
Sutton Granger G
Simon Melvin
Soll Dieter
Stetter Karl O
Short Jay M
Noordewier Michiel
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Article Info
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Abbr.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A
ISSN
0027-8424
DOI
10.1073/pnas.1735403100
Published
2003-10-28
Epub
2003-00-17
Pages
12984-8
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
7505876
PMCID
PMC240731
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1735403100 PMC Full Text View journal details
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