''Paraburkholderia xenovorans'' is a species of

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one biological cell. They constitute a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria were among ...

Genomics

The genome of ''Paraburkholderia xenovorans'' (LB400) is one of the largest bacterial genomes completely sequenced to date. The recent genomic studies of this organism have helped expand understanding of bacterial

catabolism Catabolism () is the set of metabolic pathways that breaks down molecules into smaller units that are either oxidized to release energy or used in other anabolic reactions. Catabolism breaks down large molecules (such as polysaccharides, lipids, ...

, noncatabolic physiological adaptation to

organic compound In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. The ...

s, and the evolution of large bacterial

genome In the fields of molecular biology and genetics, a genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding ge ...

s. The

metabolic pathway In biochemistry, a metabolic pathway is a linked series of chemical reactions occurring within a cell. The reactants, products, and intermediates of an enzymatic reaction are known as metabolites, which are modified by a sequence of chemical reac ...

s from phylogenetically diverse isolates are very similar with respect to overall organization. As originally noted in

pseudomonads The Pseudomonadaceae are a family of bacteria which includes the genera ''Azomonas'', ''Azorhizophilus'', ''Azotobacter'', '' Mesophilobacter'', ''Pseudomonas'' (the type genus), and '' Rugamonas''. The family Azotobacteraceae was recently recl ...

, a large number of "peripheral aromatic" pathways funnel a range of natural and

xenobiotic A xenobiotic is a chemical substance found within an organism that is not naturally produced or expected to be present within the organism. It can also cover substances that are present in much higher concentrations than are usual. Natural compo ...

compounds into a restricted number of "central aromatic" pathways. These pathways are genetically organized in genus-specific fashions. Comparative genomic studies reveal that some pathways are more widespread than initially thought. Functional genomic studies have established that even organisms harboring high numbers of homologous enzymes seem to contain few examples of true redundancy. Analyses have indicated that recent genetic flux appears to have played a more significant role in the evolution of some large genomes, such as ''Burkholderia xenovorans'' LB400, than in others. However, the emerging trend is that the large gene repertoires of potent pollutant degraders such as ''B. xenovorans'' LB400 have evolved principally through more ancient processes. That this is true in such phylogenetically diverse species is remarkable and further suggests the ancient origin of this catabolic capacity. Aromatic compounds are among the most recalcitrant of organic pollutants and much interest is seen in using

microbial biodegradation Microbial biodegradation is the use of bioremediation and biotransformation methods to harness the naturally occurring ability of microbial xenobiotic metabolism to degrade, transform or accumulate environmental pollutants, including hydrocarbons (e ...

to clean up contaminated sites.

References

xenovorans Bacteria described in 2004 {{Betaproteobacteria-stub