Genome sequence of the moderately thermophilic halophile Flexistipes sinusarabici strain (MAS10)

Abstract

Flexistipes sinusarabici Fiala et al. 2000 is the type species of the genus Flexistipes in the family Deferribacteraceae. The species is of interest because of its isolated phylogenetic location in a genomically under-characterized region of the tree of life, and because of its origin from a multiply extreme environment; the Atlantis Deep brines of the Red Sea, where it had to struggle with high temperatures, high salinity, and a high concentrations of heavy metals. This is the fourth completed genome sequence to be published of a type strain of the family Deferribacteraceae. The 2,526,590 bp long genome with its 2,346 protein-coding and 53 RNA genes is a part of the Genomic Encyclopedia of Bacteria and Archaea project.

Keywords: Deferribacteraceae; GEBA; Gram-negative; brine; heterotrophic; marine; moderately thermophilic; non-motile; strictly anaerobic.

Figure 1

Phylogenetic tree highlighting the position of F. sinusarabici relative to the type strains of the other species within the phylum "Deferribacteres". The tree was inferred from 1,459 aligned characters [7,8] of the 16S rRNA gene sequence under the maximum likelihood (ML) criterion [9]. Rooting was done initially using the midpoint method [10] and then checked for its agreement with the current classification (Table 1). The branches are scaled in terms of the expected number of substitutions per site. Numbers adjacent to the branches are support values from 250 ML bootstrap replicates [11] (left) and from 1,000 maximum parsimony bootstrap replicates [12] (right) if larger than 60%. Lineages with type strain genome sequencing projects registered in GOLD [13] are labeled with one asterisk, those also listed as 'Complete and Published' with two asterisks [14-16].

Figure 2

Scanning electron micrograph of F. sinusarabici MAS10^T

Figure 3

Graphical circular map of the chromosome. From outside to the center: Genes on forward strand (color by COG categories), Genes on reverse strand (color by COG categories), RNA genes (tRNAs green, rRNAs red, other RNAs black), GC content, GC skew.

Figure 4

Venn diagram depicting the intersections of protein sets (total number of derived protein sequences in parentheses) of F. sinusarabici, D. desulfuricans and C. nitroreducens.