Extracellular DNA and RNA produced by a marine photosynthetic bacterium Rhodovulum sulfidophilum.

Abstract

A marine photosynthetic bacterium Rhodovulum sulfidophilum secretes nucleic acids that are involved in flocculating ability. These extracellular nucleic acids have not been well characterized. Here, we have analyzed these nucleic acids and revealed that the extracellular nucleic acids are a mixture of double-stranded DNAs and single-stranded RNAs. The DNAs have sizes of more than 30 kbp and at least a part of these DNAs is probably an amplified portion of genomic DNA. The RNAs seems to be tRNA like molecules from size estimation.