Genome and Transcriptome analysis

Anaerobic acetogens synthesize acetyl-CoA via CO2 or CO reduction, producing organic compounds. Despite their ecological and industrial importance, their transcriptional and post-transcriptional gene regulation has not been systematically studied. By complete genome sequencing, we measured changes in the transcriptome of psychrotolerant acetogen Acetobacterium bakii in response to autotrophic and cold growth conditions. Unexpectedly, most of the acetogenesis-associated genes were highly upregulated under heterotrophic growth at low temperature. Transcription regulation, hinted at by changes in RNA secondary structures, was studied and 1,379 purine-rich transcription start sites (TSS) along with well-conserved promoter elements and 1,100 5'-untranslated regions (5' UTR) were found