''Prosthecobacter'' is a genus of bacteria from the phylum
Verrucomicrobiota
Verrucomicrobiota is a phylum of Gram-negative bacteria that contains only a few described species. The species identified have been isolated from fresh water, marine and soil environments and human faeces. A number of as-yet uncultivated species ...
with a distinctive characteristic; the presence of
tubulin
Tubulin in molecular biology can refer either to the tubulin protein superfamily of globular proteins, or one of the member proteins of that superfamily. α- and β-tubulins polymerize into microtubules, a major component of the eukaryotic cytoske ...
-like genes.
Tubulins, which are components of the
microtubule
Microtubules are polymers of tubulin that form part of the cytoskeleton and provide structure and shape to eukaryotic cells. Microtubules can be as long as 50 micrometres, as wide as 23 to 27 nm and have an inner diameter between 11 an ...
, have never been observed in
Gracilicutes
Gracilicutes (Latin: ''gracilis'', slender, and ''cutis'', skin, referring to the cell wall) is a clade in bacterial phylogeny.
Traditionally gram staining results were most commonly used as a classification tool, consequently until the advent o ...
before.
Tubulin was long thought to be specific to
eukaryote
Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bacte ...
s. More recently, however, several
prokaryotic
A prokaryote () is a Unicellular organism, single-celled organism that lacks a cell nucleus, nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles. The word ''prokaryote'' comes from the Greek language, Greek wikt:πρό#Ancient Greek, πρό (, 'before') a ...
proteins have been shown to be related to tubulin.
Most bacteria have a homologous structure,
FtsZ
FtsZ is a protein encoded by the ''ftsZ'' gene that assembles into a ring at the future site of bacterial cell division (also called the Z ring). FtsZ is a prokaryotic homologue of the eukaryotic protein tubulin. The initials FtsZ mean "Filamen ...
. ''Prosthecobacter'' are the exception to this, containing genes that have higher
sequence homology
Sequence homology is the biological homology between DNA, RNA, or protein sequences, defined in terms of shared ancestry in the evolutionary history of life. Two segments of DNA can have shared ancestry because of three phenomena: either a spe ...
to
eukaryotic
Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bacte ...
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
List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) is an online database that maintains information on the naming and taxonomy of prokaryotes, following the taxonomy requirements and rulings of the International Code of Nomenclature ...
(LPSN)
and
National Center for Biotechnology Information
The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is part of the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is approved and funded by the government of the United States. The ...
(NCBI)
See also
*
List of bacterial orders
This article lists the orders of the Bacteria. The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI)
and the phylogeny is based on 16S ...
*
List of bacteria genera This article lists the genera of the bacteria. The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) and National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). However many taxonomic names are ...
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q21228407
Bacteria genera
Verrucomicrobiota