F. Barloy-hubler et al., Ribosomal protein gene cluster analysis in eubacterium genomics: homology between Sinorhizobium meliloti strain 1021 and Bacillus subtilis, NUCL ACID R, 29(13), 2001, pp. 2747-2756
The first whole genome sequence of a symbiotic soil bacterium, Sinorhizobiu
m meliloti (formely named Rhizobium meliloti strain 1021, is due in 2001. A
s an active participant in the European and North American consortium that
has completed this work, our group has sequenced a region on the chromosome
containing clusters rpoBC, str, S10 spe and alpha corresponding to 30 prot
ein genes. The structural organization and function of these genes were com
pared with those of orthologs in another 15 complete eubacterial genomes av
ailable in databases. This study, involving the DNA and amino acid sequence
s as well as the organization of the whole region (gene order, cluster orde
r, etc.), has shown that the phylogenetic tree resulting from a comparison
of the amino acid sequence is rather similar to that derived from 16S rRNA
sequence data, However, the tree achieved by aligning DNA sequences groups
the organisms with a high GC content (> 60% GC), while that based on a comp
arison of gene cluster orientation and organization reveals a greater level
of correspondence between the alpha -proteobacteria S. meliloti and the fi
rmicute Bacillus subtilis.