Complete genome sequence of Caulobacter crescentus
- William C. Nierman*,†,
- Tamara V. Feldblyum†,
- Michael T. Laub‡,
- Ian T. Paulsen†,
- Karen E. Nelson†,
- Jonathan Eisen†,
- John F. Heidelberg†,
- M. R. K. Alley§,
- Noriko Ohta¶,
- Janine R. Maddock‖,
- Isabel Potocka§,
- William C. Nelson†,
- Austin Newton¶,
- Craig Stephens**,
- Nikhil D. Phadke‖,
- Bert Ely‡‡,
- Robert T. DeBoy†,
- Robert J. Dodson†,
- A. Scott Durkin†,
- Michelle L. Gwinn†,
- Daniel H. Haft†,
- James F. Kolonay†,
- John Smit††,
- M. B. Craven†,
- Hoda Khouri†,
- Jyoti Shetty†,
- Kristi Berry†,
- Teresa Utterback†,
- Kevin Tran†,
- Alex Wolf†,
- Jessica Vamathevan†,
- Maria Ermolaeva†,
- Owen White†,
- Steven L. Salzberg†,
- J. Craig Venter†,§§,
- Lucy Shapiro‡, and
- Claire M. Fraser†
- †The Institute for Genomic Research, 9712 Medical Center Drive, Rockville, MD 20850; ‡Department of Developmental Biology, Beckman Center, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA 94305; §Department of Biochemistry, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2AY, United Kingdom; ¶Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544; ‖Department of Biology, University of Michigan, 830 North University, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1048; **Biology Department, Santa Clara University, 500 El Camino Real, Santa Clara, CA 95053; ‡‡Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208; ††Department of Microbiology and Immunology, no. 300, 6174 University Boulevard, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z3 Canada; and §§Celera Genomics, 45 West Gude Drive, Rockville, MD 20850
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Contributed by Lucy Shapiro
Abstract
The complete genome sequence of Caulobacter crescentus was determined to be 4,016,942 base pairs in a single circular chromosome encoding 3,767 genes. This organism, which grows in a dilute aquatic environment, coordinates the cell division cycle and multiple cell differentiation events. With the annotated genome sequence, a full description of the genetic network that controls bacterial differentiation, cell growth, and cell cycle progression is within reach. Two-component signal transduction proteins are known to play a significant role in cell cycle progression. Genome analysis revealed that the C. crescentus genome encodes a significantly higher number of these signaling proteins (105) than any bacterial genome sequenced thus far. Another regulatory mechanism involved in cell cycle progression is DNA methylation. The occurrence of the recognition sequence for an essential DNA methylating enzyme that is required for cell cycle regulation is severely limited and shows a bias to intergenic regions. The genome contains multiple clusters of genes encoding proteins essential for survival in a nutrient poor habitat. Included are those involved in chemotaxis, outer membrane channel function, degradation of aromatic ring compounds, and the breakdown of plant-derived carbon sources, in addition to many extracytoplasmic function sigma factors, providing the organism with the ability to respond to a wide range of environmental fluctuations. C. crescentus is, to our knowledge, the first free-living α-class proteobacterium to be sequenced and will serve as a foundation for exploring the biology of this group of bacteria, which includes the obligate endosymbiont and human pathogen Rickettsia prowazekii, the plant pathogen Agrobacterium tumefaciens, and the bovine and human pathogen Brucella abortus.
Footnotes
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↵ * To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: wnierman{at}tigr.org.
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Data deposition: The sequence reported in this paper has been deposited in the GenBank database (accession no. AE005673).
- Abbreviations:
- HMM,
- hidden Markov model;
- HPK,
- histidine protein kinase;
- RR,
- response regulator
- Copyright © 2001, The National Academy of Sciences
