Marine and ecosystem pollution due to oil spills can be addressed by identifying the aromatic hydrocarbon (HC)-degrading microorganisms and their responsible genes for biodegradation. Moreover, screening for genes coding for secondary metabolites is invaluable for drug discovery. We report here, the first metagenomic study investigating the shotgun metagenome of the Suez Canal water sampled at Ismailia city concerning its aromatic HC degradation potential in comparison to the seawater sampled at Halayeb city at the Red Sea and Sallum city at the Mediterranean Sea. Moreover, for an in-depth understanding of marine biotechnology applications, we screened for the polyketide synthases (PKSs) and nonribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS) domains in those three metagenomes. By mapping against functional protein databases, we found that 13, 6, and 3 gene classes from the SEED database; 2, 1, and 3 gene classes from the EgGNOG; and 5, 4, and 2 genes from the InterPro2GO database were identified to be differentially abundant among Halayeb, Ismailia, and Sallum metagenomes, respectively. Also, Halayeb metagenome in the Red Sea reported the highest number of PKS domains showing higher potential in secondary metabolite production in addition to the oil degradation potential.

中文翻译：

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红海、苏伊士运河和地中海中芳香烃降解和次级代谢产物产生基因的比较宏基因组筛选。

可以通过识别芳香烃 (HC) 降解微生物及其负责生物降解的基因来解决由石油泄漏引起的海洋和生态系统污染。此外，筛选编码次级代谢产物的基因对于药物发现是非常宝贵的。我们在此报告了第一项宏基因组研究，该研究调查了在伊斯梅利亚市采样的苏伊士运河水的霰弹枪宏基因组，与在红海的 Halayeb 市和地中海的 Sallum 市采样的海水相比，其芳香 HC 降解潜力。此外，为了深入了解海洋生物技术应用，我们筛选了这三个宏基因组中的聚酮合酶 (PKS) 和非核糖体肽合成酶 (NRPS) 域。通过对功能蛋白质数据库进行映射，我们发现 13、6、和来自 SEED 数据库的 3 个基因类；来自 EggGNOG 的 2、1 和 3 类基因；InterPro2GO 数据库中的 5、4 和 2 个基因被鉴定为分别在 Halayeb、Ismailia 和 Sallum 宏基因组中差异丰富。此外，红海的 Halayeb 宏基因组报告了最多数量的 PKS 域，除了油降解潜力外，还显示出更高的次级代谢产物生产潜力。