Genomes of diverse isolates of the marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus

Abstract

The marine cyanobacterium Prochlorococcus is the numerically dominant photosynthetic organism in the oligotrophic oceans, and a model system in marine microbial ecology. Here we report 27 new whole genome sequences (2 complete and closed; 25 of draft quality) of cultured isolates, representing five major phylogenetic clades of Prochlorococcus. The sequenced strains were isolated from diverse regions of the oceans, facilitating studies of the drivers of microbial diversity-both in the lab and in the field. To improve the utility of these genomes for comparative genomics, we also define pre-computed clusters of orthologous groups of proteins (COGs), indicating how genes are distributed among these and other publicly available Prochlorococcus genomes. These data represent a significant expansion of Prochlorococcus reference genomes that are useful for numerous applications in microbial ecology, evolution and oceanography.

Figure 1

Prochlorococcus strains sequenced in this work. ITS-based phylogeny of the strains included in this data set (names in bold, with *) in relation to previously sequenced Prochlorococcus. Phylogenetic clade affiliation^, is indicated at right; closed circles indicate nodes with bootstrap support >75%. HL—High light adapted; LL—Low light adapted, as determined by physiological studies of some of the isolates^,,.