Occurrence of plasmids in the aromatic degrading bacterioplankton of the baltic sea

Jekaterina Jutkina; Eeva Heinaru; Eve Vedler; Jaanis Juhanson; Ain Heinaru

doi:10.3390/genes2040853

Occurrence of plasmids in the aromatic degrading bacterioplankton of the baltic sea

Genes (Basel). 2011 Nov 4;2(4):853-68. doi: 10.3390/genes2040853.

Authors

Jekaterina Jutkina¹, Eeva Heinaru², Eve Vedler³, Jaanis Juhanson⁴, Ain Heinaru⁵

Affiliations

¹ Chair of Genetics, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Riia Street 23, Tartu 51010, Estonia. jekaterina.jutkina@ut.ee.
² Chair of Genetics, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Riia Street 23, Tartu 51010, Estonia. eeva.heinaru@ut.ee.
³ Chair of Genetics, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Riia Street 23, Tartu 51010, Estonia. eve.vedler@ut.ee.
⁴ Chair of Genetics, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Riia Street 23, Tartu 51010, Estonia. jaanis.juhanson@ut.ee.
⁵ Chair of Genetics, Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, University of Tartu, Riia Street 23, Tartu 51010, Estonia. ain.heinaru@ut.ee.

Abstract

Plasmids are mobile genetic elements that provide their hosts with many beneficial traits including in some cases the ability to degrade different aromatic compounds. To fulfill the knowledge gap regarding catabolic plasmids of the Baltic Sea water, a total of 209 biodegrading bacterial strains were isolated and screened for the presence of these mobile genetic elements. We found that both large and small plasmids are common in the cultivable Baltic Sea bacterioplankton and are particularly prevalent among bacterial genera Pseudomonas and Acinetobacter. Out of 61 plasmid-containing strains (29% of all isolates), 34 strains were found to carry large plasmids, which could be associated with the biodegradative capabilities of the host bacterial strains. Focusing on the diversity of IncP-9 plasmids, self-transmissible m-toluate (TOL) and salicylate (SAL) plasmids were detected. Sequencing the repA gene of IncP-9 carrying isolates revealed a high diversity within IncP-9 plasmid family, as well as extended the assumed bacterial host species range of the IncP-9 representatives. This study is the first insight into the genetic pool of the IncP-9 catabolic plasmids in the Baltic Sea bacterioplankton.