CONTRASTING PATTERNS OF EVOLUTIONARY DIVERGENCE WITHIN THE ACINETOBACTER-CALCOACETICUS PCA OPERON

The six enzymes required for catabolism of protocatechuate to succinate and acetylCoA are encoded by the pen genes in the Gram(-) bacterium, Acinetobacter calcoaceticus. The clustered A. calcoaceticus cat genes encode an analogous set of enzymes associated with the metabolic dissimilation of catechol. The nucleotide (nt) sequences of pcaIJFB and pcaK, reported here, complete evidence showing that all of the pen structural genes are tightly grouped in the order pcaIJFBDKCHG within a single operon. The pcaIJF region is nearly identical in nt sequence to the A. calcoaceticus catIJF region which exhibits a G+C content and a codon usage pattern exceptional for A. calcoaceticus. In contrast, pcaD, pcaC, pcaH and pcaG have diverged substantially from their evolutionary counterparts in the cat region; all of these divergent genes exhibit G+C contents and codon usage patterns that are typical for A. calcoaceticus. The pcaIJF and catIJF regions are known to exchange DNA sequence information, and this property may have contributed to their nt sequence conservation. The pcaK gene has no counterpart among known cat genes. The deduced amino-acid sequence of PcaK indicates that it may be a transmembrane protein associated with transport.