PNNL

Abstract

ABSTRACT-Nocardia farcinica is a gram positive, filamentous bacterium, and is considered an opportunistic pathogen. In this study, the highly expressed genes in N. farcinica were predicted using the codon adaptation index (CAI) as a numerical estimator of gene expressivity. Using ribosomal protein (RP) genes as references, the top ~10% of the genes were predicted to be the predicted highly expressed (PHX) genes in N. farcinica using a CAI cutoff of greater than 0.73. Consistent with early analysis in Streptomyces genomes, most of the PHX genes in N. farcinica were involved in various "house-keeping" functions important for cell growth. However, fifteen genes putatively involved in no cardial virulence were predicted as PHX in N. farcinica, which included genes encoding four Mce virulence proteins, cyclopropane fatty acid synthase which is involved in the modification of cell wall important for nocardia virulence, polyketide synthase PKS13 for mycolic acid synthesis and non-ribosomal peptide synthetase involved in biosynthesis of a mycobactin-related siderophore. In addition, multiple genes involved in defense against reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by the phagocyte were predicted with high expressivity, which included alkylhdroperoxide reductase (ahpC), catalase (katG), superoxide dismutase (sodF), thioredoxin, thioredoxin reductase, glutathione peroxidase, and peptide methionine sulfoxide reductase, suggesting that combating against ROS was essential for survival of N. farcinica in host cells. The study also showed that the distribution of PHX genes in the N. farcinica circular chromosome was uneven, with more PHX genes located in the regions close to replication initiation site. The results provided the first approximates of global gene expression patterns in N. farcinica, which will be useful in guiding experimental design for further investigation.