Draft genome of Myxosarcina sp. strain GI1, a baeocytous cyanobacterium associated with the marine sponge Terpios hoshinota

Chun-Hui Yu; Chung-Kuang Lu; Huang-Ming Su; Tzen-Yuh Chiang; Chi-Chuan Hwang; Tsunglin Liu; Yi-Min Chen

doi:10.1186/s40793-015-0011-3

Draft genome of Myxosarcina sp. strain GI1, a baeocytous cyanobacterium associated with the marine sponge Terpios hoshinota

Stand Genomic Sci. 2015 May 27:10:28. doi: 10.1186/s40793-015-0011-3. eCollection 2015.

Authors

Chun-Hui Yu¹, Chung-Kuang Lu², Huang-Ming Su³, Tzen-Yuh Chiang⁴, Chi-Chuan Hwang⁵, Tsunglin Liu⁶, Yi-Min Chen³

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Bioinformatics and Biosignal Transduction, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan ; Department of Engineering Science, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan.
² National Research Institute of Chinese Medicine, Taipei 112, Taiwan ; Department of Life Sciences and Institute of Genome Sciences, School of Life Science, National YangMing University, Taipei 112, Taiwan.
³ Institute of Biotechnology, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Life Sciences, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Engineering Science, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan.
⁶ Institute of Bioinformatics and Biosignal Transduction, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan 701, Taiwan.

Abstract

To date, genome sequences (complete or in draft form) from only six baeocytous cyanobacteria in four genera have been reported: Xenococcus, Chroococcidiopsis, Pleurocapsa, and Stanieria. To expand our knowledge on the diversity of baeocytous cyanobacteria, this study sequenced the genome of GI1, which is a Myxosarcina-like baeocytous cyanobacterium. GI1 is of interest not only because of its phylogenetic niche, but also because it is a cyanobiont isolated from the marine cyanobacteriosponge Terpios hoshinota, which has been shown to cause the death of corals. The ~7 Mb draft GI1 genome contains 6,891 protein-coding genes and 62 RNA genes. A comparison of genomes among the sequenced baeocytous cyanobacterial strains revealed the existence or absence of numerous discrete genes involved in nitrogen metabolism. It will be interesting to determine whether these genes are important for cyanobacterial adaptations and interactions between cyanobionts and their marine sponge hosts.

Keywords: Baeocytous cyanobacterium; Comparative genomics; Cyanobiont; GI1; Myxosarcina; Pleurocapsales; Terpios hoshinota.