Genome-assisted analysis of dissimilatory metal-reducing bacteria

The availability of whole genome sequences for Shewanella oneidensis and Geobacter sulfurreducens has provided numerous new biological insights into the function of these model dissimilatory metal-reducing bacteria. Many of these findings, including the identification of a high number of c-type cytochromes in both organisms, have resulted from comparative genomic analyses, and several have been experimentally confirmed. These genome sequences have also aided the identification of genes important for the reduction of metal ions and other electron acceptors utilized during anaerobic growth, by facilitating the identification of genes disrupted by random insertions. Technologies for assaying global expression patterns for genes and proteins have also been employed, but their application has been limited mainly to the analysis of the role of global regulatory genes and to identifying genes expressed or repressed in response to specific electron acceptors. It is anticipated that details of the mechanisms of metal ion respiration, and metabolism in general, will eventually be revealed by comprehensive, systems-level analyses enabled by functional genomics data.