Genome Insights into the Novel Species Microvirga brassicacearum, a Rapeseed Endophyte with Biotechnological Potential

Alejandro Jiménez-Gómez; Zaki Saati-Santamaría; José M Igual; Raúl Rivas; Pedro F Mateos; Paula García-Fraile

doi:10.3390/microorganisms7090354

Genome Insights into the Novel Species Microvirga brassicacearum, a Rapeseed Endophyte with Biotechnological Potential

Microorganisms. 2019 Sep 14;7(9):354. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms7090354.

Authors

Alejandro Jiménez-Gómez^{1

2}, Zaki Saati-Santamaría^{3

4}, José M Igual^{5

6}, Raúl Rivas^{7

8

9}, Pedro F Mateos^{10

11

12}, Paula García-Fraile^{13

14

15}

Affiliations

¹ Microbiology and Genetics Department, University of Salamanca, Salamanca 37007, Spain. alexjg@usal.es.
² Spanish-Portuguese Institute for Agricultural Research (CIALE), Villamayor, Salamanca 37185, Spain. alexjg@usal.es.
³ Microbiology and Genetics Department, University of Salamanca, Salamanca 37007, Spain. zakisaati@usal.es.
⁴ Spanish-Portuguese Institute for Agricultural Research (CIALE), Villamayor, Salamanca 37185, Spain. zakisaati@usal.es.
⁵ Associated R&D Unit, USAL-CSIC (IRNASA), Salamanca 37007, Spain. raulrg@usal.es.
⁶ Institute of Natural Resourses and Agrobiology of Salamanca (IRNASA-CSIC), Salamanca 37008, Spain. raulrg@usal.es.
⁷ Microbiology and Genetics Department, University of Salamanca, Salamanca 37007, Spain. pfmg@usal.es.
⁸ Spanish-Portuguese Institute for Agricultural Research (CIALE), Villamayor, Salamanca 37185, Spain. pfmg@usal.es.
⁹ Associated R&D Unit, USAL-CSIC (IRNASA), Salamanca 37007, Spain. pfmg@usal.es.
¹⁰ Microbiology and Genetics Department, University of Salamanca, Salamanca 37007, Spain. mariano.igual@csic.es.
¹¹ Spanish-Portuguese Institute for Agricultural Research (CIALE), Villamayor, Salamanca 37185, Spain. mariano.igual@csic.es.
¹² Associated R&D Unit, USAL-CSIC (IRNASA), Salamanca 37007, Spain. mariano.igual@csic.es.
¹³ Microbiology and Genetics Department, University of Salamanca, Salamanca 37007, Spain. paulagf81@usal.es.
¹⁴ Spanish-Portuguese Institute for Agricultural Research (CIALE), Villamayor, Salamanca 37185, Spain. paulagf81@usal.es.
¹⁵ Associated R&D Unit, USAL-CSIC (IRNASA), Salamanca 37007, Spain. paulagf81@usal.es.

Abstract

Plants harbor a diversity of microorganisms constituting the plant microbiome. Many bioinoculants for agricultural crops have been isolated from plants. Nevertheless, plants are an underexplored niche for the isolation of microorganisms with other biotechnological applications. As a part of a collection of canola endophytes, we isolated strain CDVBN77^T. Its genome sequence shows not only plant growth-promoting (PGP) mechanisms, but also genetic machinery to produce secondary metabolites, with potential applications in the pharmaceutical industry, and to synthesize hydrolytic enzymes, with potential applications in biomass degradation industries. Phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene of strain CDVBN77^T shows that it belongs to the genus Microvirga, its closest related species being M. aerophila DSM 21344^T (97.64% similarity) and M. flavescens c27j1^T (97.50% similarity). It contains ubiquinone 10 as the predominant quinone, C19:0 cycloω8c and summed feature 8 as the major fatty acids, and phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine as the most abundant polar lipids. Its genomic DNA G+C content is 62.3 (mol %). Based on phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic, and phenotypic analyses, we suggest the classification of strain CDVBN77^T within a new species of the genus Microvirga and propose the name Microvirga brassicacearum sp. nov. (type strain CDVBN77^T = CECT 9905^T = LMG 31419^T).

Keywords: CAZymes; PGPB; biofertilizer; genome mining; hydrolytic enzymes; plant–bacteria interactions; secondary metabolites.

Grants and funding

750795/Horizon 2020