Bacteriorhodopsin Homolog Identified in Priestia Megaterium DSM319 Genome using Bioinformatics

Abstract

Abstract Background Priestia genus is an industrially important bacteria used in a variety of procedures. With several patents and industrial applications, P. megaterium (or Bacillus megaterium) is a potent cell factory for biotechnology. P. megaterium strain DSM319 has a genome size of 5.1 Mb and 4,955 proteins in NCBI database. Objectives The current research was focused on finding an unknown homolog of beta-carotene 15, 15’-monoxygenase (BCMO), a light-driven proton pump (bacteriorhodopsin), within the genome of P. megaterium strain DSM319. Methods Bioinformatics based methods involved in the identification of hypothetical protein (HP) of BCMO on the basis of sequence similarity were performed followed by its gene mapping, finding residues and checking its similarity with other proteins, prediction of secondary structure, transmembrane helices, and subcellular localization. Results The HP (NCBI WP_013084145.1) was the homolog of BCMO (NCBI WP_251445845.1) of P. megaterium that shared percent identity of 98%. Gene mapping showed that both BCMO and HP align at nucleotide position of 3344166–3345227 with different similarity scores. Secondary structure prediction of BCMO and HP revealed sharing of majority of alpha-helices and beta-sheets. Transmembrane helices prediction showed that HP contains 7 TMHs. The HP protein was predicted to be localized in the cell membrane by CELLO and PSORTb. Conclusion The HP of P. megaterium DSM319 was predicted to be having the function of BCMO. BCMOs are involved in conversion of beta-carotene to retinal and further to retinoid. Retinoids are used as medications for treating skin infections and as cosmetic agents.