Genomic Islands in the Corynebacterium efficiens Genome

Abstract

Corynebacterium efficiens is a gram-positive nonpathogenic bacterium which can grow and produce glutamate at 40 degrees C or above. By using the cumulative GC profile method, we have identified four genomic islands which have many unifying genomic island-specific features in the C. efficiens genome. The presence of the gene encoding an aspartate kinase in a genomic island helps explain the unexpected low thermal stability of this enzyme; i.e., the adaptive mutations have not occurred extensively due to the recent horizontal gene transfer.