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Global abundance of microbial rhodopsins.

ABSTRACT: Photochemical reaction centers and rhodopsins are the only phototrophic mechanisms known to have evolved on Earth. The minimal cost of bearing a rhodopsin-based phototrophic mechanism in comparison to maintaining a photochemical reaction center suggests that rhodopsin is the more abundant of the two. We tested this hypothesis by conducting a global abundance calculation of phototrophic mechanisms from 116 marine and terrestrial microbial metagenomes. On average, 48% of the cells from which these metagenomes were generated harbored a rhodopsin gene, exceeding the reaction center abundance by threefold. Evidence from metatranscriptomic data suggests that this genomic potential is realized to a substantial extent, at least for the small-sized (>0.8??m) of microbial fractions.

SUBMITTER: Finkel OM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3554412 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Global abundance of microbial rhodopsins.

Finkel Omri M OM Béjà Oded O Belkin Shimshon S

The ISME journal 20121011 2

Photochemical reaction centers and rhodopsins are the only phototrophic mechanisms known to have evolved on Earth. The minimal cost of bearing a rhodopsin-based phototrophic mechanism in comparison to maintaining a photochemical reaction center suggests that rhodopsin is the more abundant of the two. We tested this hypothesis by conducting a global abundance calculation of phototrophic mechanisms from 116 marine and terrestrial microbial metagenomes. On average, 48% of the cells from which these ...[more]

PMID: 23051692

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