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MBE Advance Access published online on September 14, 2005
Molecular Biology and Evolution, doi:10.1093/molbev/msj019
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© The Author 2005. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Accepted September 4, 2005

Research Article

Complex Histories of Genes Encoding 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoenzymeA Reductase

Uri Gophna 1*, Janelle R. Thompson 2, Yan Boucher 3, and W. Ford Doolittle 1

1 Genome Atlantic and Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Dalhousie University, 5850 College Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 1X5
2 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
3 Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Uri Gophna, E-mail: ugophna{at}dal.ca


  Abstract

The mevalonate pathway for synthesis of the isoprenoids can be found in organisms from all life's domains. It has been previously demonstrated that the first gene specific to that pathway, which encodes the enzyme 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-CoenzymeA reductase (HMGR), has been transferred between domains by lateral gene transfer on several occasions. Here we look within the domain Bacteria at lateral acquisition of HMGR, whether as a single gene or as part of a mevalonate pathway cluster. We observe a complex history of multiple transfer events probably reflecting the fact that HMGR could be beneficial in a variety of physiological and genetic contexts. We demonstrate that even in Vibrio species, where HMGR is not clustered with other genes to form an operon or a metabolic cluster, it is under strong purifying selection.

Keywords: Legionella pneumophila ; Coxiella burnetii; Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus; Vibrio ; horizontal gene transfer; mobilon; molecular evolution.
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