''Prosthecobacter'' is a genus of bacteria from the phylum
Verrucomicrobiota with a distinctive characteristic; the presence of
tubulin-like genes.
Tubulins, which are components of the
microtubule, have never been observed in
Gracilicutes before.
Tubulin was long thought to be specific to
eukaryote
Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bact ...
s. More recently, however, several
prokaryotic
A prokaryote () is a single-celled organism that lacks a nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles. The word ''prokaryote'' comes from the Greek πρό (, 'before') and κάρυον (, 'nut' or 'kernel').Campbell, N. "Biology:Concepts & Connec ...
proteins have been shown to be related to tubulin.
Most bacteria have a homologous structure,
FtsZ. ''Prosthecobacter'' are the exception to this, containing genes that have higher
sequence homology
Sequence homology is the biological homology between DNA, RNA, or protein sequences, defined in terms of shared ancestry in the evolutionary history of life. Two segments of DNA can have shared ancestry because of three phenomena: either a sp ...
to
eukaryotic
Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bact ...
tubulin than FtsZ.
These genes are called bacterial tubulin a (BtubA) and bacterial tubulin b (BtubB). The properties are not exactly same. However, surface loops and microtubules are extremely similar.
Phylogeny
The currently accepted taxonomy is based on the
List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature
List of Prokaryotic names with Standing in Nomenclature (LPSN) is an online database that maintains information on the naming and taxonomy
Taxonomy is the practice and science of categorization or classification.
A taxonomy (or taxonomical ...
(LPSN)
and
National Center for Biotechnology Information
The National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) is part of the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It is approved and funded by the government of the United States. T ...
(NCBI)
See also
*
List of bacterial orders
*
List of bacteria genera
References
{{Taxonbar, from=Q21228407
Bacteria genera
Verrucomicrobiota