Agricultural Microbes Genome 2 Conference Agricultural Microbes Genome 2 Conference
Workshop: Bioinformatics
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A comprehensive comparative genomic study of the cytoplasmic membrane transporter content of each completely sequenced organism has been undertaken. The transport systems present in each organism were classified according to (1) putative membrane topology, (2) protein family, (3) bioenergetics, and (4) substrate specificities. The overall transport capabilities of each organism were thereby estimated. Differences in their reliance on primary vs. secondary transport and the range of transporter substrate specificities in each organism were found to generally correlate with the respective ecological niches and metabolic capabilities of each organism. Over a hundred distinct families of cytoplasmic membrane transport proteins were identified. The efficacy of a phylogenetic approach for predicting function was demonstrated. Comparison of the transport capabilities between prokaryotes and eukaryotes revealed both functional and philosophical differences.