Genomic Context of Metal Response Genes in Cupriavidus metallidurans with a Focus on Strain CH34

Cupriavidus metallidurans CH34 has been studied for over 30 years, mostly because of its resistance to numerous heavy metals. Many of these metal resistance determinants were rapidly associated with native megaplasmids. However, its genome sequencing and whole genome expression profiling not only revealed the complex structure of its multiple replicons and complex responses to metals, but also revealed the presence of unnoticed/unstudied metal resistance determinants on the different replicons. In this chapter, the genomic context of the metal response genes in C. metallidurans CH34 will be described with a focus on its mobilome including insertion sequence elements, transposons, integrative and conjugative elements and genomic islands.