Genome of the marine alphaproteobacterium Hoeflea phototrophica type strain (DFL-43(T))

Abstract

Hoeflea phototrophica Biebl et al. 2006 is a member of the family Phyllobacteriaceae in the order Rhizobiales, which is thus far only partially characterized at the genome level. This marine bacterium contains the photosynthesis reaction-center genes pufL and pufM and is of interest because it lives in close association with toxic dinoflagellates such as Prorocentrum lima. The 4,467,792 bp genome (permanent draft sequence) with its 4,296 protein-coding and 69 RNA genes is a part of the Marine Microbial Initiative.

Keywords: Phenotype MicroArray; Phyllobacteriaceae; Prorocentrum lima; aerobic; bacteriochlorophyll a; dinoflagellates; motile; photoheterotroph; rod-shaped; symbiosis.

Figure 1

Phylogenetic tree highlighting the position of H. phototrophica relative to the type strains of the other species within the family Phyllobacteriaceae. The tree was inferred from 1,362 aligned characters [9,10] of the 16S rRNA gene sequence under the maximum likelihood (ML) criterion [11]. Rooting was done initially using the midpoint method [12] 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 1,000 ML bootstrap replicates [13] (left) and from 1,000 maximum-parsimony bootstrap replicates [14] (right) if larger than 60%. Lineages with type strain genome sequencing projects registered in GOLD [15] are labeled with one asterisk, those also listed as 'Complete and Published' (CP002279 for Mesorhizobium opportunistum) with two asterisks.

Figure 2

Scanning electron micrograph of H. phototrophica DFL-43^T

Figure 3

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