Insight in to the phylogeny of polyhydroxyalkanoate biosynthesis: horizontal gene transfer

Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are gaining more and more importance the world over due to their structural diversity and close analogy to plastics. Their biodegradability makes them extremely desirable substitutes for synthetic plastics. PHAs are produced in organisms under certain stress conditions. Here, we investigated 253 sequenced (completely and unfinished) genomes for the diversity and phylogenetics of the PHA biosynthesis. Discrepancies in the phylogenetic trees for phaA, phaB and phaC genes of the PHA biosynthesis have led to the suggestion that horizontal gene transfer (HGT) may be a major contributor for its evolution. Twenty four organisms belonging to diverse taxa were found to be involved in HGT. Among these, Bacillus cereus ATCC 14579 and Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. citri str. 306 seem to have acquired all the three genes through HGT events and have not been characterized so far as PHA producers. This study also revealed certain potential organisms such as Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2), Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 12228, Brucella suis 1330, Burkholderia sp., DSMZ 9242 and Leptospira interrogans serovar lai str. 56601, which can be transformed into novel PHA producers through recombinant DNA technology.