Genomic insights into organohalide respiration

In the last few years there has been a burst of genomes released for organohalide respiring bacteria (referred to as OHRB herein though the process is otherwise known as dehalorespiration, reductive dechlorination, or halorespiration). The microorganisms are employed in bioremediation of sites contaminated with chlorinated ethene, ethane, and methanes, as well as chlorinated aromatics. Of particular note are the releases of the first Dehalogenimonas genome (a Dehalococcoides-related Chloroflexi) and not one but seven Dehalobacter (meta)genomes. Collectively, genomes from these three genera (Dehalococcoides, Dehalogenimonas, and Dehalobacter) clearly support their niche as obligate OHRB, while other genera with sequenced genomes (Desulfitobacterium, Geobacter, and Anaeromyxobacter) maintain organohalide respiration (OHR) as one of many possible energy conserving respiration strategies. The obligate OHRB genomes consistently harbor 10-39 unique reductive dehalogenase (RDase) genes and they are flanked with not only transcriptional regulators but also transposition related genes. Active transposition likely plays a key role in the accumulation of such a broad and tightly regulated dehalogenase repertoire. Functional assays are now the bottleneck for genome-informed discovery of dehalogenase substrate ranges.