Prosthecobacter Explained

Prosthecobacter is a genus of bacteria from the phylum Verrucomicrobiota with a distinctive characteristic; the presence of tubulin-like genes. Tubulins, which are components of the microtubule, have never been observed in Gracilicutes before.

Tubulin was long thought to be specific to eukaryotes. More recently, however, several prokaryotic proteins have been shown to be related to tubulin.^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Most bacteria have a homologous structure, FtsZ. Prosthecobacter are the exception to this, containing genes that have higher sequence homology to eukaryotic tubulin than FtsZ.

These genes are called bacterial tubulin a (BtubA) and bacterial tubulin b (BtubB). The properties are not exactly same. However, surface loops and microtubules are extremely similar.

Phylogeny

The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN)^[5] and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)^[6]

See also

• List of bacterial orders
• List of bacteria genera

Notes and References

1. Nogales E, Downing KH, Amos LA, Löwe J . Tubulin and FtsZ form a distinct family of GTPases . Nature Structural Biology . 5 . 6 . 451–8 . June 1998 . 9628483 . 10.1038/nsb0698-451 . 5945125 .
2. Jenkins C, Samudrala R, Anderson I, Hedlund BP, Petroni G, Michailova N, Pinel N, Overbeek R, Rosati G, Staley JT . Genes for the cytoskeletal protein tubulin in the bacterial genus Prosthecobacter . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America . 99 . 26 . 17049–54 . December 2002 . 12486237 . 139267 . 10.1073/pnas.012516899 . 2002PNAS...9917049J . free .
3. Yutin N, Koonin EV . Archaeal origin of tubulin . Biology Direct . 7 . 10 . March 2012 . 22458654 . 3349469 . 10.1186/1745-6150-7-10 . free .
4. Larsen RA, Cusumano C, Fujioka A, Lim-Fong G, Patterson P, Pogliano J . Treadmilling of a prokaryotic tubulin-like protein, TubZ, required for plasmid stability in Bacillus thuringiensis . Genes & Development . 21 . 11 . 1340–52 . June 2007 . 17510284 . 1877747 . 10.1101/gad.1546107 .
5. Web site: J.P. Euzéby . Prosthecobacter. 2022-09-09 . List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN).
6. Web site: Sayers. Prosthecobacter . 2022-09-09 . National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) taxonomy database . et al..
7. Web site: The LTP . 20 November 2023.
8. Web site: LTP_all tree in newick format. 20 November 2023.
9. Web site: LTP_08_2023 Release Notes. 20 November 2023.
10. Web site: GTDB release 08-RS214 . Genome Taxonomy Database. 10 May 2023.
11. Web site: bac120_r214.sp_label . Genome Taxonomy Database. 10 May 2023.
12. Web site: Taxon History . Genome Taxonomy Database. 10 May 2023.