Valérie Lelaure

The scarcity of usable nitrogen frequently limits plant growth. A tight metabolic association with rhizobial bacteria allows legumes to obtain nitrogen compounds by bacterial reduction of dinitrogen (N2) to ammonium (NH4+). We present here the annotated DNA sequence of the alpha-proteobacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti, the symbiont of alfalfa. The tripartite 6.7-megabase (Mb) genome comprises a 3.65-Mb chromosome, and 1.35-Mb pSymA and 1.68-Mb pSymB megaplasmids. Genome sequence analysis indicates that all three elements contribute, in varying degrees, to symbiosis and reveals how this genome may have emerged during evolution. The genome sequence will be useful in understanding the dynamics of interkingdom associations and of life in soil environments.

Sinorhizobium meliloti is an alpha-proteobacterium that forms agronomically important N(2)-fixing root nodules in legumes. We report here the complete sequence of the largest constituent of its genome, a 62.7% GC-rich 3,654,135-bp circular chromosome. Annotation allowed assignment of a function to 59% of the 3,341 predicted protein-coding ORFs, the rest exhibiting partial, weak, or no similarity with any known sequence. Unexpectedly, the level of reiteration within this replicon is low, with only two genes duplicated with more than 90% nucleotide sequence identity, transposon elements accounting for 2.2% of the sequence, and a few hundred short repeated palindromic motifs (RIME1, RIME2, and C) widespread over the chromosome. Three regions with a significantly lower GC content are most likely of external origin. Detailed annotation revealed that this replicon contains all housekeeping genes except two essential genes that are located on pSymB. Amino acid/peptide transport and degradation and sugar metabolism appear as two major features of the S. meliloti chromosome. The presence in this replicon of a large number of nucleotide cyclases with a peculiar structure, as well as of genes homologous to virulence determinants of animal and plant pathogens, opens perspectives in the study of this bacterium both as a free-living soil microorganism and as a plant symbiont.

One of the rewards of having a Drosophila melanogaster whole-genome sequence will be the potential to understand the molecular bases for structural features of chromosomes that have been a long-standing puzzle. Analysis of 2.6 megabases of sequence from the tip of the X chromosome of Drosophila identifies 273 genes. Cloned DNAs from the characteristic bulbous structure at the tip of the X chromosome in the region of the broad complex display an unusual pattern of in situ hybridization. Sequence analysis revealed that this region comprises 154 kilobases of DNA flanked by 1.2-kilobases of inverted repeats, each composed of a 350-base pair satellite related element. Thus, some aspects of chromosome structure appear to be revealed directly within the DNA sequence itself.