Open AccessGenome-Derived Criteria for Assigning Environmental narG and nosZ Sequences to Operational Taxonomic Units of Nitrate Reducers
Author(s) -
Katharina Palmer,
Harold L. Drake,
Marcus A. Horn
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
applied and environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.552
H-Index - 324
eISSN - 1070-6291
pISSN - 0099-2240
DOI - 10.1128/aem.00254-09
Subject(s) - biology , similarity (geometry) , 16s ribosomal rna , genome , horizontal gene transfer , gene , phylogenetics , phylogenetic tree , genus , evolutionary biology , genetics , zoology , artificial intelligence , computer science , image (mathematics)
Ninety percent of cultured bacterial nitrate reducers with a 16S rRNA gene similarity of ≥97% had anarG ornosZ similarity of ≥67% or ≥80%, respectively, suggesting that 67% and 80% could be used as standardized, conservative threshold similarity values fornarG andnosZ , respectively (i.e., any two sequences that are less similar than the threshold similarity value have a very high probability of belonging to different species), for estimating species-level operational taxonomic units. Genus-level tree topologies ofnarG andnosZ were generally similar to those of the corresponding 16S rRNA genes. Although some genomes contained multiple copies ofnarG , recent horizontal gene transfer ofnarG was not apparent.