Uricase or Urate oxidase (urate:oxygen oxidoreductase, EC 1.7.3.3), a peroxisomal enzyme which is found in many bacteria, catalyzes the oxidative opening of the purine ring of urate to yield allantoin, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen peroxide. In this study, the phylogeny of urate oxidase (uricase) producing bacteria was studied based on gene sequences of 16S rRNA and uricase protein. Repres...

Streptomyces venezuelae ATCC 10595 harbors seven rRNA gene clusters which can be distinguished by BglII digestion. The three rRNA genes present in each set are closely linked with the general structure 16S-23S-5S. We cloned rrnA and sequenced the 16S-23S spacer region and the region downstream of the 5S rRNA gene. No tRNA gene was found in these regions.

Several characteristics of the 16S rRNA gene, such as its essential function, ubiquity, and evolutionary properties, have allowed it to become the most commonly used molecular marker in microbial ecology. However, one fact that has been overlooked is that multiple copies of this gene are often present in a given bacterium. These intragenomic copies can differ in sequence, leading to identificat...

BACKGROUND 16S rRNA methylase-producing Gram-negative bacteria are highly resistant to all clinically important aminoglycosides. We analyzed clinical strains of 16S rRNA methylase-producing Acinetobactor baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa obtained from clinical isolates in medical settings in Vietnam. METHODS From 2008 to 2011, 101 clinical strains of A. baumannii and 15 of P. aeruginosa we...

Ever since Carl Woese introduced the use of 16S rRNA genes for determining the phylogenetic relationships of prokaryotes, this method has been regarded as the "gold standard" in both microbial phylogeny and ecology studies. However, intragenomic heterogeneity within 16S rRNA genes has been reported in many investigations and is believed to bias the estimation of prokaryotic diversity. In the cu...

Here we present the first description of the presence of two distinct types of 16S rRNA genes in the genome of a (eu)bacterium, Thermobispora bispora. We cloned and determined the nucleotide sequences of all four rRNA operons of T. bispora. Sequence comparisons revealed that the genome of T. bispora contains two distinct types of 16S rRNA genes, each type consisting of two identical or nearly i...