DNA phosphorothioation is widespread and quantized in bacterial genomes |
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| Authors: | Wang Lianrong Chen Shi Vergin Kevin L Giovannoni Stephen J Chan Simon W DeMott Michael S Taghizadeh Koli Cordero Otto X Cutler Michael Timberlake Sonia Alm Eric J Polz Martin F Pinhassi Jarone Deng Zixin Dedon Peter C |
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| Affiliation: | Department of Biological Engineering, Center for Environmental Health Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. |
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| Abstract: | Phosphorothioate (PT) modification of DNA, with sulfur replacing a nonbridging phosphate oxygen, was recently discovered as a product of the dnd genes found in bacteria and archaea. Given our limited understanding of the biological function of PT modifications, including sequence context, genomic frequencies, and relationships to the diversity of dnd gene clusters, we undertook a quantitative study of PT modifications in prokaryotic genomes using a liquid chromatography-coupled tandem quadrupole mass spectrometry approach. The results revealed a diversity of unique PT sequence contexts and three discrete genomic frequencies in a wide range of bacteria. Metagenomic analyses of PT modifications revealed unique ecological distributions, and a phylogenetic comparison of dnd genes and PT sequence contexts strongly supports the horizontal transfer of dnd genes. These results are consistent with the involvement of PT modifications in a type of restriction-modification system with wide distribution in prokaryotes. |
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| Keywords: | DNA modification bioanalytical chemistry sulfur |
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