PLoS ONE (Sep 2007)

Paradoxical DNA repair and peroxide resistance gene conservation in Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032.

  • Jason Gioia,
  • Shailaja Yerrapragada,
  • Xiang Qin,
  • Huaiyang Jiang,
  • Okezie C Igboeli,
  • Donna Muzny,
  • Shannon Dugan-Rocha,
  • Yan Ding,
  • Alicia Hawes,
  • Wen Liu,
  • Lesette Perez,
  • Christie Kovar,
  • Huyen Dinh,
  • Sandra Lee,
  • Lynne Nazareth,
  • Peter Blyth,
  • Michael Holder,
  • Christian Buhay,
  • Madhan R Tirumalai,
  • Yamei Liu,
  • Indrani Dasgupta,
  • Lina Bokhetache,
  • Masaya Fujita,
  • Fathi Karouia,
  • Prahathees Eswara Moorthy,
  • Johnathan Siefert,
  • Akif Uzman,
  • Prince Buzumbo,
  • Avani Verma,
  • Hiba Zwiya,
  • Brian D McWilliams,
  • Adeloa Olowu,
  • Kenneth D Clinkenbeard,
  • David Newcombe,
  • Lisa Golebiewski,
  • Joseph F Petrosino,
  • Wayne L Nicholson,
  • George E Fox,
  • Kasthuri Venkateswaran,
  • Sarah K Highlander,
  • George M Weinstock

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0000928
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 2, no. 9
p. e928

Abstract

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BackgroundBacillus spores are notoriously resistant to unfavorable conditions such as UV radiation, gamma-radiation, H2O2, desiccation, chemical disinfection, or starvation. Bacillus pumilus SAFR-032 survives standard decontamination procedures of the Jet Propulsion Lab spacecraft assembly facility, and both spores and vegetative cells of this strain exhibit elevated resistance to UV radiation and H2O2 compared to other Bacillus species.Principal findingsThe genome of B. pumilus SAFR-032 was sequenced and annotated. Lists of genes relevant to DNA repair and the oxidative stress response were generated and compared to B. subtilis and B. licheniformis. Differences in conservation of genes, gene order, and protein sequences are highlighted because they potentially explain the extreme resistance phenotype of B. pumilus. The B. pumilus genome includes genes not found in B. subtilis or B. licheniformis and conserved genes with sequence divergence, but paradoxically lacks several genes that function in UV or H2O2 resistance in other Bacillus species.SignificanceThis study identifies several candidate genes for further research into UV and H2O2 resistance. These findings will help explain the resistance of B. pumilus and are applicable to understanding sterilization survival strategies of microbes.