Media Releases >
Media Releases Archive
> Dirt-dwelling workhorse unearthed
Dirt-dwelling workhorse unearthed
Document Tools
December 5, 2006
A microorganism capable of digesting pollutants and producing industrially important compounds might sound like a miracle sent from the future. But as two SFU researchers recently discovered, one of nature's most versatile workhorses has been lurking in the soil for hundreds of millions of years.
Fiona Brinkman, molecular biology and biochemistry associate professor, and graduate student William Hsiao played a key role in the analysis of the Rhodococcus genome. This dirt-dwelling bacterium has industrial applications ranging from the production of acrylic acid - a compound used to manufacture plastics, paints and adhesives - to the breakdown of PCB pollutants.
Using IslandPath - a computational tool developed in the Brinkman lab, the pair uncovered the evolutionary history of this multi-talented microbe.
"We wanted to understand how the Rhodococcus genome became so large and so versatile," says Hsiao. "We discovered that both its large size and its ability to use diverse compounds found in soil evolved mainly through ancient gene acquisitions and duplications."
These long-ago evolutionary events may have also facilitated more recent adaptations in the bacterium.
"The ancient core pathways may have given Rhodococcus enough versatility to survive in a complex environment like soil," Brinkman explains. "This then predisposes the bug to obtain other genes from other organisms in that same environment, making it even more versatile."
Their findings, part of a study led by UBC researcher Lindsay Eltis, were included in a Rhodococcus genome paper published in October's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Fiona Brinkman, molecular biology and biochemistry associate professor, and graduate student William Hsiao played a key role in the analysis of the Rhodococcus genome. This dirt-dwelling bacterium has industrial applications ranging from the production of acrylic acid - a compound used to manufacture plastics, paints and adhesives - to the breakdown of PCB pollutants.
Using IslandPath - a computational tool developed in the Brinkman lab, the pair uncovered the evolutionary history of this multi-talented microbe.
"We wanted to understand how the Rhodococcus genome became so large and so versatile," says Hsiao. "We discovered that both its large size and its ability to use diverse compounds found in soil evolved mainly through ancient gene acquisitions and duplications."
These long-ago evolutionary events may have also facilitated more recent adaptations in the bacterium.
"The ancient core pathways may have given Rhodococcus enough versatility to survive in a complex environment like soil," Brinkman explains. "This then predisposes the bug to obtain other genes from other organisms in that same environment, making it even more versatile."
Their findings, part of a study led by UBC researcher Lindsay Eltis, were included in a Rhodococcus genome paper published in October's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.