Bioinformatics study of Cytochrome P450s in Acinetobacter baumannii

Petroleum is an important energy and raw material source for many industries. Oil exploration, drilling and transport leads to frequent accidental soil and water pollution. Bioremediation by oil-consuming microorganisms, utilizing the oil-degrading activity of microorganisms, is an environmentally and economically attractive process compared regular chemical and physical methods, for removal of contaminants. Cytochrome P450 is one of the enzymes involved in decomposition of hydrocarbon pollutants by oil-eating bacteria. Here, we first collected samples from oil polluted aeras and following various stages of separation and purification, we succeeded in isolating oil-degrading bacteria. One of these isolates was Acinetobacter baumannii, which showed adequate growth in the presence of hydrocarbons. Then, we analysed sequences of known P450s in A.baumannii strains. A total of 53 sequences related to P450s were found in Acinetobacter genus, of which 9 sequences belonged to A. baumannii. Based on our bioinformatics studies, despite the existence of some conserved stretches of sequences in the primary structure of these P450s and overall similarities in predited structures among P450s, we found a high variation in the sequences and details of predicted structure of these proteins, which could be indicative of different cellular localization and/or substrate diversity of these enzymes.