Blue-light driven enzymatic activities in extremophilic bacteria from High-Altitude Andean Lakes.

ALBARRACÍN, V. H., PATHAK, G., MARRANZINO, G., BORSARELLI, C., GÄRTNER, W. FARIAS, M.E.

San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina

Congreso; XLV Reunión Anual de la Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular; 2009

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Bioquímica y Biología Molecular (SAIB)

A collection of 200 extremophilic strains from High-Altitude Andean Lakes (HAAL; between 3000 and 6000 masl) at the northwest of Argentina has been built (www.limla.com.ar). These indigenous extremophiles should produce biomolecules adapted to their unusual living conditions that may represent valuable sources of novel bioproducts. In this work, we search for genes coding photolyases and photoreceptores containing LOV (Light-Oxygen-Voltage) domains in the UV-resistant extremophilic strains of our collection. Genes involved in blue-light driven enzimatic activities were screened in: Rhodocococcus sp. A5, Brevibacterium sp. Ap13, Stenotrophomonas sp. N38, N50, Acinetobacter spp. N40, Ver3, Ver5, Ver7 and Pseudomonas sp. V1; all of which showed resistance to UV-light and efficient photoreparation mechanisms. Using specific subsets of PCR primers we detected that Acinetobacter sp. Ver3 and Ver7 harboured photolyase genes quite divergent from those deposited in database. Similarly, application of a LOV-domain specific DNA microarray indicated the presence of LOV domains in Rhodocococcus sp. A5, Stenotrophomonas sp. N50, Acinetobacter sp. Ver5 and Pseudomonas sp. V1. These studies demonstrated that HAAL are environments where light-inducible flavoproteins are widespread suggesting that light-driven enzimatic activities can be of ulmost importance for survival of the indigenous communities.