Question

You are aware of a Vibrio cholerae operon that contains a FadL and a lipase in the same operon. Did
you identify a similar operon in V. harveyi? To investigate conserved hypothetical proteins you must use
NCBI and look up the protein. Then click on ‘Identify Conserved Domains.’ Describe the types of proteins
that are in this V. harveyi operon.

Perform an alignment between your identified lipase in V. harveyi and VCA0863 from V. cholerae N16961.
Download the alignment file, print it out, and submit it with this assignment.
Do these two proteins look like they would perform the same function? ______________
VCA0863 was determined to be a lipoprotein in V. cholerae, which was named VolA. Determine if this V.
harveyi protein is a lipoprotein using the LipoP 1.0 Server (http://www.cbs.dtu.dk/services/LipoP/).
What are your results?

_________________________________

One of the other operons you identified (in Q4) contained 2 FadLs and 2 other proteins. What are the
predicted functions of the other 2 proteins?

_______________________________________________________________________

Answer 1

Operon of V. cholerae is HoloLABE Operon of V. harveyi is

So, both are having some conserved sequence and great homology but one segment (H) is additional in case of V. harveyi (as given operon) which is actually a light emitting bacterium (bioluminescent marine bacteria) whereas V. cholerae is a bacterium that can cause pathogenic conditions like diarrhea (an infectious disease). Both are gram-negative bacteria.The rest of the components are same in both bacteria (you can see in the diagram).

When we compare the gene sequence of these two species on NCBI then we can identify several conserved but several non-similar genes (proteins) also. As compared to V. cholerae, V. harveyi is having fewer proteins and genes also, V. harveyi is having several proteins which are actually coded for the bioluminescence (capacity to emit light) through expression of several proteins (encoded only for V. harveyi and not present in V. cholerae). In general genome size of V. harveyi is very small as compared to V. cholerae.