Comparative analysis of surface layer glycoproteins and genes involved in protein glycosylation in the genus haloferax

Yarden Shalev, Shannon M. Soucy, R. Thane Papke, J. Peter Gogarten, Jerry Eichler, Uri Gophna*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

14 Scopus citations

Abstract

Within the Haloferax genus, both the surface (S)-layer protein, and the glycans that can decorate it, vary between species, which can potentially result in many different surface types, analogous to bacterial serotypes. This variation may mediate phenotypes, such as sensitivity to different viruses and mating preferences. Here, we describe S-layer glycoproteins found in multiple Haloferax strains and perform comparative genomics analyses of major and alternative glycosylation clusters of isolates from two coastal sites. We analyze the phylogeny of individual glycosylation genes and demonstrate that while the major glycosylation cluster tends to be conserved among closely related strains, the alternative cluster is highly variable. Thus, geographically- and genetically-related strains may exhibit diverse surface structures to such an extent that no two isolates present an identical surface profile.

Original languageEnglish
Article number172
JournalGenes
Volume9
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 20 Mar 2018

Funding

FundersFunder number
BSF-NSF
joint research program
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation2013061, 2016671, NSF/MCB 1716046
ISF-NSFC2193/16
National Science Foundation1716046
Israel Science Foundation109/16

    Keywords

    • Glycosylation
    • Halophilic archaea
    • Horizontal gene transfer
    • Lateral gene transfer
    • Mating
    • Recombination
    • S-layer

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