Functional type 2 photosynthetic reaction centers found in the rare bacterial phylum Gemmatimonadetes

• Zeng, Yonghui
;
• Feng, Fuying
;
• Medová, Hana
;
• Dean, Jason
;
• Koblížek, Michal

Abstract

Photosynthesis is one of the most fundamental biological processes on Earth. To date, species capable of performing (bacterio)chlorophyll-based phototrophy have been reported in six bacterial phyla. Here we report a phototrophic bacterium belonging to the rare and understudied phylum Gemmatimonadetes. This strain, isolated from a freshwater lake in the Gobi Desert, contains fully functional photosynthetic reaction centers. Its photosynthesis genes appear to originate from an ancient horizontal gene transfer from a purple phototrophic bacterium. Our findings not only demonstrate that Gemmatimonadetes represents a new phototrophic bacterial phylum, but also present, to our knowledge, the first evidence that genes for (bacterio)chlorophyll-based phototrophy can be transferred between distant bacterial phyla.