Large number of phosphotransferase genes in the Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 genome and the study on their evolution

BACKGROUND: Clostridium beijerinckii is a valuable bacteria species which has the ability of ABE (acetone, butanol and ethanol) production. It has been shown that Phosphotransferase (PTS) is an important and common system for both carbohydrate uptake and phosphorylation in bacteria, but detailed study of the system, especially its fructose/mannose/sorbose family is scant. RESULTS: In the genome of Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052, a model strain recently sequenced, there are large number of PTS genes, among them 9 complete sets belong to the fructose/mannose/sorbose family of its enzyme II complex. Our study, based on evidences provided by phylogenetic relationship, analyses of gene contents and clusters, as well as synteny examination, indicates that it is possible to further classify this PTS family into three sub-groups, which are corresponding to the three sugar substrates. Furthermore, we proposed a model how these PTS systems are evolved in bacteria. CONCLUSION: This work may explain the experimental result that Clostridium beijerinckii NCIMB 8052 can better utilize fructose as substrate, thus could lead to a better understanding of the ABE-producing mechanism in Clostridium beijerinckii and other microbial species. It may help to illustrate a higher butanol-productivity future.