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Updated: Jul 5, 2026

Adaptation at the Extremes of Life: Experimental Evolution with the Extremophile Archaeon Sulfolobus acidocaldarius
Published on: June 14, 2024
Diversity surveys and evolutionary relationships of aoxB genes in aerobic arsenite-oxidizing bacteria
Marianne Quéméneur1, Audrey Heinrich-Salmeron, Daniel Muller
1BRGM, Ecotechnology Unit, Process and Environment Division, 3 Avenue Claude Guillemin, 45060 Orléans Cedex 02, France.
Abstract:
A new primer set was designed to specifically amplify ca. 1,100 bp of aoxB genes encoding the As(III) oxidase catalytic subunit from taxonomically diverse aerobic As(III)-oxidizing bacteria. Comparative analysis of AoxB protein sequences showed variable conservation levels and highlighted the conservation of essential amino acids and structural motifs. AoxB phylogeny of pure strains showed well-discriminated taxonomic groups and was similar to 16S rRNA phylogeny. Alphaproteobacteria-, Betaproteobacteria-, and Gammaproteobacteria-related sequences were retrieved from environmental surveys, demonstrating their prevalence in mesophilic As-contaminated soils. Our study underlines the usefulness of the aoxB gene as a functional marker of aerobic As(III) oxidizers.
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