Furthermore, these plasmids often undergo after transfer between different

sphingomonads pronounced rearrangements (Feng et al., 1997a, b; Ogram et al., 2000; Basta et al., 2004, 2005). Therefore, it seems that the maintenance, transfer and recombination of these plasmids are of major Cobimetinib cost importance for the exceptional degradative capabilities of this group of bacteria. The genomes of several sphingomonads have recently been sequenced, and therefore, also an increasing number of plasmid sequences from sphingomonads became available. It was therefore attempted to analyse the available plasmid sequence data in order to collect the currently accessible information about (degradative) plasmids in sphingomonads. The first example of a find more sequenced and carefully analysed degradative plasmid from a sphingomonad was plasmid pNL1 from Sphingomonas (now Novosphingobium) aromaticivorans F199, which carries all genes required for the degradation of biphenyl, naphthalene, m-xylene and p-cresol (Romine et al., 1999). Subsequently, the sequence analysis of plasmids pCAR3 (carrying all the genes for the mineralization of carbazole), pCHQ1 (coding for the linRED genes participating

in the degradation of γ-hexachlorocyclohexane) and pPDL2 (coding for a parathion hydrolase involved in organophosphate degradation) has been published (Shintani et al., 2007; Nagata et al., 2011; Pandeeti et al., 2012; Table 1). 86 362–87 666 YP_001165688.1 433 aa 84 603–85 808 YP_001165687.1 401 aa 83 388–84 371 YP_001165686.1 326 aa 209 439–210 644 YP_001165975.1

401 aa 212 040–213 242 YP_001165977.1 400 aa 210 877–211 962 either YP_001165976.1 361 aa 200 594–201 594 YP_718153.1 433 aa 202 396–203 658 YP_718154.1 420 aa 203 777–204 757 YP_718155.1 326 aa 1–1360 YP_003546976.1 387 aa 1360–2562 YP_003546977.1 400 aa 2607–3623 YP_003546978.1 338 aa 1–1104 YP_003543403.1 367 aa 1417–2052 YP_003543405.1 211 aa 1–654 YP_003550320.1 217 aa 19 777–20 880 YP_006965786.1 367 aa 21 193–21 828 YP_006965788.1 211 aa 84 694–85 854 EHJ57984.1 386 aa 86 021–87 223 EHJ57985.1 400 aa 87 506–88 327 EHJ57986.1 273 aa 2557–3339 WP_006949648 260 aa 43 879–44 637 WP_004213275 252 aa 42 857–43 882 WP_004213274 341 aa 51 3635–51 4939 CCA90427 434 aa 51 5490–51 6695 CCA90428 401 aa 51 6867–51 7844 CCA90429 325 aa 88 922–90 199 CCA89897 425 aa 86 441–87 634 CCA89895 397 aa 87 744–88 817 CCA89896 357 aa 45 176–45 961 CCA89804 261 aa 4081–5244 YP_007592251.1 376 aa 5439–6641 YP_007592252.1 400 aa 6686–7702 YP_007592253.1 338 aa 114 750–115 880 YP_007618239.1 376 aa 117 028–118 224 YP_007618241.1 398 aa 115 961–117 031 YP_007618240.1 356 aa 1–1104 YP_007592499.1 367 aa 1417–2052 YP_007592501 211 aa 37 217–38 329 AGH52044 370  aa 38 704–39 357 AGH52046 217 aa 101–1012 AGH52053.1 303 aa 1376–2011 AGH52055.1 211 aa 17 4080–17 5195 ABQ71384.1 371 aa 4708–5361 ABQ71231.1 217 aa 15 1005–15 3194 ABQ71370.1 729 aa 63 589–64 893 ABQ71573.1 434 aa 61 838–62 989 ABQ71572.1 383 aa 60 612–61 586 ABQ71571.1 324 aa 1–1164 YP_004831121.