Roseobacter-Like Bacteria in Red and Mediterranean Sea Aerobic Anoxygenic Photosynthetic Populations

10 pages, 5 figuresBacteriochlorophyll α-containing aerobic anoxygenic phototrophs (AAnP) have been proposed to account for up to 11% of the total surface water microbial community and to potentially have great ecological importance in the world's oceans. Recently, environmental and genomic data based on analysis of the pufM gene identified the existence of α-proteobacteria as well as possible γ-like proteobacteria among AAnP in the Pacific Ocean. Here we report on analyses of environmental samples from the Red and Mediterranean Seas by using pufM as well as the bchX and bchL genes as molecular markers. The majority of photosynthesis genes retrieved from these seas were related to Roseobacter-like AAnP sequences. Furthermore, the sequence of a novel photosynthetic operon organization from an uncultured Roseobacter-like bacterial artificial chromosome retrieved from the Red Sea is described. The data show the presence of Roseobacter-like bacteria in Red and Mediterranean Sea AAnP populations in the seasons analyzedThis work was supported in part by the Israel Science Foundation grant 434/02 and Human Frontiers Science Program P38/2002 (O.B.), EU project PICODIV EVK3-CT1999-00021 (R.M.), and GACR project 206/03/P079, institutional concept grant AV0Z50 20903 and Czech MSMT project LN00A141 (M.K.)Peer Reviewe