Genomic and phenotypic insights into the ecology of Arthroba
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TitleGenomic and phenotypic insights into the ecology of Arthrobacter from Antarctic soilsAbstractBackground: Members of the bacterial genus Arthrobacter are both readily cultured and commonly identified in Antarctic soil communities. Currently, relatively little is known about the physiological traits that allow these bacteria to survive in the harsh Antarctic soil environment. The aim of this study is to investigate if Antarctic strains of Arthrobacter owe their resilience to substantial genomic changes compared to Arthrobacter spp. isolated from temperate soil environments. Results: Quantitative PCR-based analysis revealed that up to 4% of the soil bacterial communities were comprised of Arthrobacter spp. at four locations in the Ross Sea Region. Genome analysis of the seven Antarctic Arthrobacter isolates revealed several features that are commonly observed in psychrophilic/psychrotolerant bacteria. These include genes primarily associated with sigma factors, signal transduction pathways, the carotenoid biosynthesis pathway and genes induced by cold-shock, oxidative and osmotic stresses. However, these genes were also identified in genomes of seven temperate Arthrobacter spp., suggesting that these mechanisms are beneficial for growth and survival in a range of soil environments. Phenotypic characterisation revealed that Antarctic Arthrobacter isolates demonstrate significantly lower metabolic versatility and a narrower salinity tolerance range compared to temperate Arthrobacter species. Comparative analyses also revealed fewer protein-coding sequences and a significant decrease in genes associated with transcription and carbohydrate transport and metabolism in four of the seven Antarctic Arthrobacter isolates. Notwithstanding genome incompleteness, these differences together with the decreased metabolic versatility are indicative of genome content scaling. Conclusions: The genomes of the seven Antarctic Arthrobacter isolates contained several features that may be beneficial for growth and survival in the Antarctic soil environment, although these features were not unique to the Antarctic isolates. These genome sequences allow further investigations into the expression of physiological traits that enable survival under extreme conditions and, more importantly, into the ability of these bacteria to respond to future perturbations including climate change and human impacts. Copyright 2014 Dsouza et al.AcknowledgementsThis research was supported by Core funding for Crown Research Institutes from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and EmploymentÅ› Science and Innovation Group, New Zealand. We thank Antarctica New Zealand for providing logistic support during sample collection.
Details
1st AuthorDsouza, M.AuthorDsouza, M.Taylor, M.Turner, S.Aislabie, J.Year2015JournalBMC GenomicsVolume16Number1DOI10.1186/s12864-015-1220-2URLhttps://www.scopus.com/inward/recor.....071a82b6fc5152e661cdf93e9Keywordsrank5ProgrammeK123 - Environmental Protection of Antarctic Soils
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TypeArticleCitationDsouza, M., Taylor, M., Turner, S. and Aislabie, J. (2015). Genomic and phenotypic insights into the ecology of Arthrobacter from Antarctic soils. BMC Genomics, 16(1) IdentifierDsouza2015Relevancerank5
Linked To
Aislabie, J., Genomic and phenotypic insights into the ecology of Arthroba , [Dsouza2015]. Antarctica NZ, accessed 21/06/2025, https://adam.antarcticanz.govt.nz/nodes/view/63474, 10.1186/s12864-015-1220-2