Characterization of paralogous and orthologous members of the superoxide dismutase gene family from genera of the halophilic archaebacteria.

Four species representing three genera of halophilic archaebacteria were examined for the presence of genomic sequences that encode proteins of the superoxide dismutase family. Three species, Halobacterium cutirubrum, Halobacterium sp. strain GRB, and Haloferax volcanii, contain duplicated (paralogous) genes of the sod family; a fourth species, Haloarcula marismortui, contains only a single gene. These seven genes were cloned and sequenced, and their transcripts were characterized by Northern (RNA) hybridization, S1 nuclease protection, and primer extension. The expression of one of the two genes in H. cutirubrum, Halobacterium sp. strain GRB, and Haloferax volcanii was shown to be elevated in the presence of paraquat, a generator of superoxide radicals. The other genes, including the single gene from Haloarcula marismortui, exhibited no elevated expression in the presence of paraquat. The 5' and 3' flanking regions of all the genes contain recognizable promoter and terminator elements that are appropriately positioned relative to the 5' and 3' transcript end sites. Between genera, the orthologous paraquat-responsive genes exhibit no sequence similarity in either their 5' or 3' flanking regions, whereas the orthologous nonresponsive genes exhibit limited sequence similarity but only in the 5' flanking region. Within the coding region, the two paralogous genes of Haloferax volcanii are virtually identical (99.5%) despite the absence of similarity in the flanking regions. In contrast, the paralogous genes of H. cutirubrum and Halobacterium sp. strain GRB are only about 87% identical. In the alignment of all seven sequences, there are nine codon positions where both the TCN and AGY serine codons are utilized; some or all of these may well be examples of convergent evolution.