S32-03 : 活性汚泥細菌叢におけるプラスミドメタゲノム解析

宮崎 亮¹,Vladimir Sentchilo²,van der Meer Jan Roelof² 
1産業技術総合研究所　生物プロセス研究部門, 2University of Lausanne
Plasmids have been recognized as an important driver of DNA exchange and genetic innovation in prokaryotes. It is thought that plasmids accumulate, rearrange and distribute nonessential genes, which may provide an advantage for host proliferation under selective conditions. In order to test this hypothesis, we study the plasmid metagenome from microbial communities in two activated sludge systems, one of which receives mostly household and the other chemical industry wastewater. We find that plasmids from microbial communities carry among the largest proportion of unknown gene pools so far detected in metagenomic DNA, confirming their presumed role of DNA innovators. At a system level plasmid metagenomes were dominated by functions associated with replication and transposition, and contained a wide variety of antibiotic and heavy metal resistances. Plasmid families were very different in the two metagenomes and grouped in deep-branching new families compared with known plasmid replicons. The two plasmid metagenomes strongly differed in several ways, including a greater abundance of genes for carbohydrate metabolism in the industrial and of general defense factors in the household activated sludge. This suggests that plasmids not only contribute to the adaptation of individual prokaryotic species, but of the prokaryotic community as a whole under local selective conditions.

keywords:plasmid,metagenome,activated sludge,,