User:Slacksushi/Burkholderia

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Taxonomy
Burkholderia species form a monophyletic group within the Burkholderiales order of the Betaproteobacteria. Currently, the 48 validly named species can be distinguished from related genera (i.e. Paraburkholderia) and all other bacteria by conserved signature indels in a variety of proteins. These indels represent exclusive common ancestry shared among all Burkholderia species.

The genus has three distinct monophyletic clusters. One group consists of all species belonging to the Burkholderia cepacia complex, another clade comprises B. pseudomallei and closely related species, and the last clade encompasses of most of the phytogenic species within the genus, including B. glumae and B. gladioli . Conserved signature indels are specific for each of these subgroups within the genus that aid in demarcating members of this extremely large and diverse genus.

Research
Recently, research in Burkholderia species has investigated a range of topics and characteristics including metabolomic response to antibiotics, contact-dependent interactions between bacterial communities, and genomic potential to yield beneficial products.

In Burkholderia species, certain antibiotics has been shown to induce and upregulate a large amount of the metabolome such as trimethoprim inducing over 100 silent secondary metabolite gene clusters in Burkholderia thailandensis. These global activators can be used as a source of investigation into how the metabolomes of pathogenic bacterial species respond to antibiotic stress and how bacterial species can vary in response to them. It has been shown that closely related cystic fibrosis-associated Burkholderia species respond to trimethoprim with differing levels of expression of various secondary metabolites, highlighting the personalized nature of metabolomics in related bacterial strains.

Research focused on interbacterial signaling using Burkholderia has shown that contact-dependent growth inhibition plays a significant role in mediating cell to cell communication specifically in B. thailandensis. In this interaction, cells release protein toxins to the surrounding environment, and only those with a corresponding protective protein (usually bacteria of the same strain) will not have its growth inhibited or die. Furthermore, recipient cells that have the corresponding protein then undergo changes to gene expression and phenotype that promotes community formation in the form of biofilms. This occurs even if the recipient cell was not of the same bacterial strain which highlights the importance of this system. The genes that encode the protein toxins and the rest of the contact-dependent inhibition system can become mobile in the form of a transposon that can transfer between cells and is critical to communal aspect of the system. Thus, contact-dependent signaling plays a significant role in bacterial self recognition and community formation.

Burkholderia species have been shown to be a potential source of beneficial products such as antimicrobials and biosurfactants. Along with the related genus Pseudomonas, Burkholderia can synthesize a particular class of biosurfactant called rhamnolipids. Rhamnolipids synthesized by Burkholderia have differing chemical characteristics (compared to those synthesized by Pseudomonas) and thus have the potential for novel applications.

Species
List of species:


 * Burkholderia alpina
 * Burkholderia ambifaria


 * Burkholderia anthina


 * Burkholderia arboris


 * Burkholderia cenocepacia
 * Burkholderia cepacia


 * Burkholderia contaminans


 * Burkholderia diffusa


 * Burkholderia dolosa


 * Burkholderia gladioli


 * Burkholderia glumae


 * Burkholderia humptydooensis


 * Burkholderia lata
 * Burkholderia latens
 * Burkholderia mallei


 * Burkholderia metallica


 * Burkholderia multivorans


 * Burkholderia oklahomensis


 * Burkholderia plantarii
 * Burkholderia pseudomallei
 * Burkholderia pseudomultivorans


 * Burkholderia puraquae
 * Burkholderia pyrrocinia


 * Burkholderia seminalis


 * Burkholderia singaporensis
 * Burkholderia singularis


 * Burkholderia stabilis
 * Burkholderia stagnalis


 * Burkholderia territorii
 * Burkholderia thailandensis


 * Burkholderia ubonensis


 * Burkholderia vietnamiensis