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Proteomic properties reveal phyloecological clusters of Archaea.

ABSTRACT: In this study, we propose a novel way to describe the variety of environmental adaptations of Archaea. We have clustered 57 Archaea by using a non-redundant set of proteomic features, and verified that the clusters correspond to environmental adaptations to the archaeal habitats. The first cluster consists dominantly of hyperthermophiles and hyperthermoacidophilic aerobes. The second cluster joins together halophilic and extremely halophilic Archaea, while the third cluster contains mesophilic (mostly methanogenic) Archaea together with thermoacidophiles. The non-redundant subset of proteomic features was found to consist of five features: the ratio of charged residues to uncharged, average protein size, normalized frequency of beta-sheet, normalized frequency of extended structure and number of hydrogen bond donors. We propose this clustering to be termed phyloecological clustering. This approach could give additional insights into relationships among archaeal species that may be hidden by sole phylogenetic analysis.

SUBMITTER: Nikolic N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3485053 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Proteomic properties reveal phyloecological clusters of Archaea.

Nikolic Nela N Smole Zlatko Z Krisko Anita A

PloS one 20121025 10

In this study, we propose a novel way to describe the variety of environmental adaptations of Archaea. We have clustered 57 Archaea by using a non-redundant set of proteomic features, and verified that the clusters correspond to environmental adaptations to the archaeal habitats. The first cluster consists dominantly of hyperthermophiles and hyperthermoacidophilic aerobes. The second cluster joins together halophilic and extremely halophilic Archaea, while the third cluster contains mesophilic ( ...[more]

PMID: 23133575

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Project description:BackgroundCollections of Clusters of Orthologous Genes (COGs) provide indispensable tools for comparative genomic analysis, evolutionary reconstruction and functional annotation of new genomes. Initially, COGs were made for all complete genomes of cellular life forms that were available at the time. However, with the accumulation of thousands of complete genomes, construction of a comprehensive COG set has become extremely computationally demanding and prone to error propagation, necessitating the switch to taxon-specific COG collections. Previously, we reported the collection of COGs for 41 genomes of Archaea (arCOGs). Here we present a major update of the arCOGs and describe evolutionary reconstructions to reveal general trends in the evolution of Archaea.ResultsThe updated version of the arCOG database incorporates 91% of the pangenome of 120 archaea (251,032 protein-coding genes altogether) into 10,335 arCOGs. Using this new set of arCOGs, we performed maximum likelihood reconstruction of the genome content of archaeal ancestral forms and gene gain and loss events in archaeal evolution. This reconstruction shows that the last Common Ancestor of the extant Archaea was an organism of greater complexity than most of the extant archaea, probably with over 2,500 protein-coding genes. The subsequent evolution of almost all archaeal lineages was apparently dominated by gene loss resulting in genome streamlining. Overall, in the evolution of Archaea as well as a representative set of bacteria that was similarly analyzed for comparison, gene losses are estimated to outnumber gene gains at least 4 to 1. Analysis of specific patterns of gene gain in Archaea shows that, although some groups, in particular Halobacteria, acquire substantially more genes than others, on the whole, gene exchange between major groups of Archaea appears to be largely random, with no major 'highways' of horizontal gene transfer.ConclusionsThe updated collection of arCOGs is expected to become a key resource for comparative genomics, evolutionary reconstruction and functional annotation of new archaeal genomes. Given that, in spite of the major increase in the number of genomes, the conserved core of archaeal genes appears to be stabilizing, the major evolutionary trends revealed here have a chance to stand the test of time.ReviewersThis article was reviewed by (for complete reviews see the Reviewers' Reports section): Dr. PLG, Prof. PF, Dr. PL (nominated by Prof. JPG).

Project description:An evolutionary classification of genes from sequenced genomes that distinguishes between orthologs and paralogs is indispensable for genome annotation and evolutionary reconstruction. Shortly after multiple genome sequences of bacteria, archaea, and unicellular eukaryotes became available, an attempt on such a classification was implemented in Clusters of Orthologous Groups of proteins (COGs). Rapid accumulation of genome sequences creates opportunities for refining COGs but also represents a challenge because of error amplification. One of the practical strategies involves construction of refined COGs for phylogenetically compact subsets of genomes.New Archaeal Clusters of Orthologous Genes (arCOGs) were constructed for 41 archaeal genomes (13 Crenarchaeota, 27 Euryarchaeota and one Nanoarchaeon) using an improved procedure that employs a similarity tree between smaller, group-specific clusters, semi-automatically partitions orthology domains in multidomain proteins, and uses profile searches for identification of remote orthologs. The annotation of arCOGs is a consensus between three assignments based on the COGs, the CDD database, and the annotations of homologs in the NR database. The 7538 arCOGs, on average, cover approximately 88% of the genes in a genome compared to a approximately 76% coverage in COGs. The finer granularity of ortholog identification in the arCOGs is apparent from the fact that 4538 arCOGs correspond to 2362 COGs; approximately 40% of the arCOGs are new. The archaeal gene core (protein-coding genes found in all 41 genome) consists of 166 arCOGs. The arCOGs were used to reconstruct gene loss and gene gain events during archaeal evolution and gene sets of ancestral forms. The Last Archaeal Common Ancestor (LACA) is conservatively estimated to possess 996 genes compared to 1245 and 1335 genes for the last common ancestors of Crenarchaeota and Euryarchaeota, respectively. It is inferred that LACA was a chemoautotrophic hyperthermophile that, in addition to the core archaeal functions, encoded more idiosyncratic systems, e.g., the CASS systems of antivirus defense and some toxin-antitoxin systems.The arCOGs provide a convenient, flexible framework for functional annotation of archaeal genomes, comparative genomics and evolutionary reconstructions. Genomic reconstructions suggest that the last common ancestor of archaea might have been (nearly) as advanced as the modern archaeal hyperthermophiles. ArCOGs and related information are available at: ftp://ftp.ncbi.nih.gov/pub/koonin/arCOGs/.

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Proteomic properties reveal phyloecological clusters of Archaea.

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Proteomic properties reveal phyloecological clusters of Archaea.

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