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Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Generation of Null Mutants to Elucidate the Role of Bacterial Glycosyltransferases in Bacterial Motility
Published on: March 11, 2022
Horizontal gene transfer from Eukarya to bacteria and domain shuffling: the alpha-amylase model
J-L Da Lage1, G Feller, S Janecek
1UPR 9034 Populations, Génétique et Evolution, CNRS, 91198, Gif sur Yvette cedex, France. jldl@pge.cnrs-gif.fr
Abstract:
Alpha-amylases are present in all kingdoms of the living world. Despite strong conservation of the tertiary structure, only a few amino acids are conserved in interkingdom comparisons. Animal alpha-amylases are characterized by several typical motifs and biochemical properties. A few cases of such alpha-amylases have been previously reported in some eubacterial species. We screened the bacterial genomes available in the sequence databases for new occurrences of animal-like alpha-amylases. Three novel cases were found, which belong to unrelated bacterial phyla: Chloroflexus aurantiacus, Microbulbifer degradans, and Thermobifida fusca. All the animal-like alpha-amylases in Bacteria probably result from repeated horizontal gene transfer from animals. The M. degradans genome also contains bacterial-type and plant-type alpha-amylases in addition to the animal-type one. Thus, this species exhibits alpha-amylases of animal, plant, and bacterial origins. Moreover, the similarities in the extra C-terminal domains (different from both the alpha-amylase domain C and the starch-binding domain), when present, also suggest interkingdom as well as intragenomic shuffling.
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