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July 7, 2019

Genome sequence of Pseudomonas parafulva CRS01-1, an antagonistic bacterium isolated from rice field.

Pseudomonas parafulva (formerly known as Pseudomonas fulva) is an antagonistic bacterium against several rice bacterial and fungal diseases. The total genome size of P. parafulva CRS01-1 is 5,087,619bp with 4389 coding sequences (CDSs), 77 tRNAs, and 7 rRNAs. The annotated full genome sequence of the P. parafulva CRS01-1 strain might shed light on its role as an antagonistic bacterium. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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July 7, 2019

Complete genome sequence of Serratia multitudinisentens RB-25(T), a novel chitinolytic bacterium.

Serratia multitudinisentens RB-25(T) (=DSM 28811(T) =LMG 28304(T)) is a newly proposed type strain in the genus of Serratia isolated from a municipal landfill site. Here, we present the complete genome of S. multitudinisentens RB-25(T) which contains a complete chitinase operon and other chitin and N-acetylglucosamine utilisation enzymes. To our knowledge, this is the first report of the complete genome sequence of this novel isolate and its chitinase gene discovery. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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July 7, 2019

Genome sequence of Penicillium capsulatum strain ATCC 48735, a rare Penicillium species used in paper manufactories but that recently caused invasive infection.

The genus Penicillium phylogenetically belongs to Trichocomaceae, with approximately 300 reported species. The majority of these species are saprobic and commonly occur in soil. This paper reports the genome sequence of Penicillium capsulatum strain ATCC 48735, a rare Penicillium species used in paper manufactories and that was recently reported as a human-invasive opportunist. Copyright © 2015 Yang et al.

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July 7, 2019

Full genome sequence of Brevibacillus laterosporus strain B9, a biological control strain isolated from Zhejiang, China.

Brevibacillus laterosporus was newly classified from Bacillus laterosporus, which has ability to be used as a biological control agent in crop field. B. laterosporus strain B9 is an aerobic, motile, Gram-positive, spore-forming rod that was isolated from a field of Oryza sativa in Zhejiang, China in 2011. This bacterium has been confirmed to be a strong antagonist against bacterial brown strip of rice caused by Acidovorex avenae subsp. avenae. Here we describe the features of B. laterosporus strain B9, together with the complete genome sequence and its annotation. The 5,272,435bp genome contains 4804 protein-coding genes and 227 RNA-only encoding genes with 2 plasmids. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier B.V.

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July 7, 2019

Comparative analyses of clinical and environmental populations of Cryptococcus neoformans in Botswana.

Cryptococcus neoformans var. grubii (Cng) is the most common cause of fungal meningitis, and its prevalence is highest in sub-Saharan Africa. Patients become infected by inhaling airborne spores or desiccated yeast cells from the environment, where the fungus thrives in avian droppings, trees and soil. To investigate the prevalence and population structure of Cng in southern Africa, we analysed isolates from 77 environmental samples and 64 patients. We detected significant genetic diversity among isolates and strong evidence of geographic structure at the local level. High proportions of isolates with the rare MATa allele were observed in both clinical and environmental isolates; however, the mating-type alleles were unevenly distributed among different subpopulations. Nearly equal proportions of the MATa and MATa mating types were observed among all clinical isolates and in one environmental subpopulation from the eastern part of Botswana. As previously reported, there was evidence of both clonality and recombination in different geographic areas. These results provide a foundation for subsequent genomewide association studies to identify genes and genotypes linked to pathogenicity in humans. © 2015 The Authors. Molecular Ecology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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July 7, 2019

Complete genome sequence of Burkholderia pyrrocinia 2327(T), the first industrial bacterium which produced antifungal antibiotic pyrrolnitrin.

Burkholderia pyrrocinia 2327(T) (=DSM 10685(T), having an origin history as a strain Fujisawa Pharm 2327(T) from Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.) is the first industrial bacterium for the isolation of antifungal antibiotic pyrrolnitrin. Herein, we present the first complete genome sequence of strain 2327(T), which consists of three circular chromosomes with one plasmid for the total 7,961,346bp sized genome with a GC content of 66.5%. This information will provide better understanding of molecular mechanisms in strain 2327(T), leading the insight of whole-cell system for the practical application of strain with the virtue of antibiotic capacity. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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July 7, 2019

Discovery of microbial natural products by activation of silent biosynthetic gene clusters.

Microorganisms produce a wealth of structurally diverse specialized metabolites with a remarkable range of biological activities and a wide variety of applications in medicine and agriculture, such as the treatment of infectious diseases and cancer, and the prevention of crop damage. Genomics has revealed that many microorganisms have far greater potential to produce specialized metabolites than was thought from classic bioactivity screens; however, realizing this potential has been hampered by the fact that many specialized metabolite biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) are not expressed in laboratory cultures. In this Review, we discuss the strategies that have been developed in bacteria and fungi to identify and induce the expression of such silent BGCs, and we briefly summarize methods for the isolation and structural characterization of their metabolic products.

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July 7, 2019

Essential roles of methionine and S-adenosylmethionine in the autarkic lifestyle of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Multidrug resistance, strong side effects, and compliance problems in TB chemotherapy mandate new ways to kill Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb). Here we show that deletion of the gene encoding homoserine transacetylase (metA) inactivates methionine and S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) biosynthesis in Mtb and renders this pathogen exquisitely sensitive to killing in immunocompetent or immunocompromised mice, leading to rapid clearance from host tissues. Mtb ?metA is unable to proliferate in primary human macrophages, and in vitro starvation leads to extraordinarily rapid killing with no appearance of suppressor mutants. Cell death of Mtb ?metA is faster than that of other auxotrophic mutants (i.e., tryptophan, pantothenate, leucine, biotin), suggesting a particularly potent mechanism of killing. Time-course metabolomics showed complete depletion of intracellular methionine and SAM. SAM depletion was consistent with a significant decrease in methylation at the DNA level (measured by single-molecule real-time sequencing) and with the induction of several essential methyltransferases involved in biotin and menaquinone biosynthesis, both of which are vital biological processes and validated targets of antimycobacterial drugs. Mtb ?metA could be partially rescued by biotin supplementation, confirming a multitarget cell death mechanism. The work presented here uncovers a previously unidentified vulnerability of Mtb-the incapacity to scavenge intermediates of SAM and methionine biosynthesis from the host. This vulnerability unveils an entirely new drug target space with the promise of rapid killing of the tubercle bacillus by a new mechanism of action.

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July 7, 2019

Identification and structural characterization of naturally-occurring broad-spectrum cyclic antibiotics isolated from Paenibacillus.

The rise of antimicrobial resistance necessitates the discovery and/or production of novel antibiotics. Isolated strains of Paenibacillus alvei were previously shown to exhibit antimicrobial activity against a number of pathogens, such as E. coli, Salmonella, and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The responsible antimicrobial compounds were isolated from these Paenibacillus strains and a combination of low and high resolution mass spectrometry with multiple-stage tandem mass spectrometry was used for identification. A group of closely related cyclic lipopeptides was identified, differing primarily by fatty acid chain length and one of two possible amino acid substitutions. Variation in the fatty acid length resulted in mass differences of 14 Da and yielded groups of related MS(n) spectra. Despite the inherent complexity of MS/MS spectra of cyclic compounds, straightforward analysis of these spectra was accomplished by determining differences in complementary product ion series between compounds that differ in molecular weight by 14 Da. The primary peptide sequence assignment was confirmed through genome mining; the combination of these analytical tools represents a workflow that can be used for the identification of complex antibiotics. The compounds also share amino acid sequence similarity to a previously identified broad-spectrum antibiotic isolated from Paenibacillus. The presence of such a wide distribution of related compounds produced by the same organism represents a novel class of broad-spectrum antibiotic compounds.

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July 7, 2019

Whole genome sequence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa F9676, an antagonistic bacterium isolated from rice seed.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a group of bacteria, which can be isolated from diverse ecological niches. P. aeruginosa strain F9676 was first isolated from a rice seed sample in 2003. It showed strong antagonism against several plant pathogens. In this study, whole genome sequencing was carried out. The total genome size of F9676 is 6368,008bp with 5586 coding genes (CDS), 67 tRNAs and 3 rRNAs. The genome sequence of F9676 may shed a light on antagonism P. aeruginosa. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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July 7, 2019

The genome of the Saprophytic fungus Verticillium tricorpus reveals a complex effector repertoire resembling that of its pathogenic relatives.

Vascular wilts caused by Verticillium spp. are destructive plant diseases affecting hundreds of hosts. Only a few Verticillium spp. are causal agents of vascular wilt diseases, of which V. dahliae is the most notorious pathogen, and several V. dahliae genomes are available. In contrast, V. tricorpus is mainly known as a saprophyte and causal agent of opportunistic infections. Based on a hybrid approach that combines second and third generation sequencing, a near-gapless V. tricorpus genome assembly was obtained. With comparative genomics, we sought to identify genomic features in V. dahliae that confer the ability to cause vascular wilt disease. Unexpectedly, both species encode similar effector repertoires and share a genomic structure with genes encoding secreted proteins clustered in genomic islands. Intriguingly, V. tricorpus contains significantly fewer repetitive elements and an extended spectrum of secreted carbohydrate- active enzymes when compared with V. dahliae. In conclusion, we highlight the technical advances of a hybrid sequencing and assembly approach and show that the saprophyte V. tricorpus shares many hallmark features with the pathogen V. dahliae.

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July 7, 2019

Complete mitochondrial genome of the medicinal fungus Ophiocordyceps sinensis.

As part of a genome sequencing project for Ophiocordyceps sinensis, strain 1229, a complete mitochondrial (mt) genome was assembled as a single circular dsDNA of 157,510?bp, one of the largest reported for fungi. Conserved genes including the large and small rRNA subunits, 27 tRNA and 15 protein-coding genes, were identified. In addition, 58 non-conserved open reading frames (ncORFs) in the intergenic and intronic regions were also identified. Transcription analyses using RNA-Seq validated the expression of most conserved genes and ncORFs. Fifty-two introns (groups I and II) were found within conserved genes, accounting for 68.5% of the genome. Thirty-two homing endonucleases (HEs) with motif patterns LAGLIDADG (21) and GIY-YIG (11) were identified in group I introns. The ncORFs found in group II introns mostly encoded reverse transcriptases (RTs). As in other hypocrealean fungi, gene contents and order were found to be conserved in the mt genome of O. sinensis, but the genome size was enlarged by longer intergenic regions and numerous introns. Intergenic and intronic regions were composed of abundant repetitive sequences usually associated with mobile elements. It is likely that intronic ncORFs, which encode RTs and HEs, may have contributed to the enlarged mt genome of O. sinensis.

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July 7, 2019

GMcloser: closing gaps in assemblies accurately with a likelihood-based selection of contig or long-read alignments.

Genome assemblies generated with next-generation sequencing (NGS) reads usually contain a number of gaps. Several tools have recently been developed to close the gaps in these assemblies with NGS reads. Although these gap-closing tools efficiently close the gaps, they entail a high rate of misassembly at gap-closing sites.We have found that the assembly error rates caused by these tools are 20-500-fold higher than the rate of errors introduced into contigs by de novo assemblers. We here describe GMcloser, a tool that accurately closes these gaps with a preassembled contig set or a long read set (i.e. error-corrected PacBio reads). GMcloser uses likelihood-based classifiers calculated from the alignment statistics between scaffolds, contigs and paired-end reads to correctly assign contigs or long reads to gap regions of scaffolds, thereby achieving accurate and efficient gap closure. We demonstrate with sequencing data from various organisms that the gap-closing accuracy of GMcloser is 3-100-fold higher than those of other available tools, with similar efficiency.GMcloser and an accompanying tool (GMvalue) for evaluating the assembly and correcting misassemblies except SNPs and short indels in the assembly are available at https://sourceforge.net/projects/gmcloser/.shunichi.kosugi@riken.jpSupplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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