First Complete Genome Sequence of a Probiotic Enterococcus faecium Strain T-110 and Its Comparative Genome Analysis with Pathogenic and Non-pathogenic Enterococcus faecium Genomes

Enterococci bacteria are important in environmental, food and clinical microbiology. Enterococcus faecium is a nosocomial pathogen that causes bacteremia, endocarditis and other infections. It is among the most prevalent organisms encountered in hospital-associated infections accounting for approximately 12% of nosocomial infections in the USA （Linden and Miller, 1999）. However, certain strains of E. faecium are not only non-pathogenic but also have beneficial effects on human health with probiotic potential. For example, E. faecium T-110 is a consortium member in several probiotic products including BIO-THREE~ which is widely prescribed for human, animal and aqua-cultural use. This strain was originally developed by TOA Pharmaceuticals in Japan, and later used in the probiotic products of several other companies.

Alleviative effects of Bacillus coagulans strains on irritable bowel syndrome-unraveling strain specificity through physiological and genomic analysis

The high intraspecies heterogeneity of Baciillus coagulans leads to significant phenotypic differences among different strains.Thus,6 B.coagulans strains were tested in the present study using an irritable bowel syndrome(IBS)animal model to determine whether the IBS-alleviating effects of B.coagulans strains are strain-specific.The results of this study showed that the ingestion of B.coagulans GBI-30,6086,and B.coagulans CCFM1041 significantly alleviated IBS symptoms in mice.In contrast,other B.coagulans strains showed no or limited alleviating effects on IBS symptoms.According to our experimental results,the two main common features of these strains were as follows:1)The resistance of vegetative cells to bile salts,and 2)ability to synthesize specific lipids and secondary metabolites.Screening strains based on these two indicators may greatly reduce costs and provide a basis for mining new functional B.coagulans strains.Our results also suggest that administration of B.coagulans could significantly regulate microbiota dysbiosis in animal models.Moreover,the close relationships between the gut microbiota,gut microbiota metabolites,and IBS were further confirmed in this study.

Comparative Genomic Analysis of Enterovirus 71 Revealed Six New Potential Neurovirulence-associated Sites

In the present study,the complete genomes of four common（4/EV71/Wenzhou/CHN/2014,15/EV71/Wenzhou/CHN/2014,116/EV71/Wenzhou/CHN/2014,and 120/EV71/Wenzhou/CHN/2014）and two virulent（11/EV71/Wenzhou/CHN/2014and 109/EV71/Wenzhou/CHN/2014）enterovirus 71（EV71）isolates were sequenced and described.They are 7405 bp in length and belong to EV71 sub-genotype C4 （C4a cluster）.

Phylogenetic and Comparative Genomic Analysis of Lactobacillus fermentum Strains and the Key Genes Related to their Intestinal Anti-Inflammatory Effects

Emerging evidence shows that some Lactobacillus fermentum(L.fermentum)strains can contribute to the prevention and treatment of ulcerative colitis(UC).In this study,105 isolates of L.fermentum strains were separated from fecal samples of populations in different regions in China and their draft genomes were sequenced.Pan-genomic and phylogenetic characterizations of these strains and four model strains(L.fermentum 3872,CECT5716,IF03956,and VRI003)were performed.Phylogenetic analysis ind icated that there was no significant adaptive evolution between the genomes of L.fermentum strains and the geographical location,sex,ethnicity,and age of the hosts.Three L.fermentum strains(FWXBH115,FGDLZR121,and FXJCJ61)from different branches of the phylogenetic tree and strain type L.fermentum CECT5716 were selected and their anti-inflammatory and immune modulatory activities in a dextran sulphate sodium(DSS)-induced colitis mouse model were further investigated.Both L.fermentum FXJCJ61 and CECT5716 significantly alleviated UC by reducing all colitis-associated histological indices,maintaining mucosal integrity,and stimulating replenishment of short-chain fatty acids(SCFAs),while the other two strains failed to offer similar protection.The anti-inflammato ry mechanisms of L.fermentum FXJCJ61 and CECT5716 were related to the inhibition of nuclear factor kappa-B(NF-κB)signaling pathway activation and enhancement of interleukin 10(IL-10)production.Comparative genomic analysis of these strains identified candidate genes that may contribute to the anti-inflammatory effects of specific L.fermentum strains.

Fine mapping of powdery mildew resistance gene PmTm4 in wheat using comparative genomics

Powdery mildew,caused by Blumeria graminis f.sp.tritici,is one of the most severe wheat diseases.Mining powdery mildew resistance genes in wheat cultivars and their appliance in breeding program is a promising way to control this disease.Genetic analysis revealed that a single dominant resistance gene named PmTm4 originated from Chinese wheat line Tangmai 4 confers resistance to prevailing isolates of B.graminis f.sp.tritici isolate E09.Detailed comparative genomics analyses helped to develop closely linked markers to PmTm4 and a fine genetic map was constructed using large F2population,in which PmTm4 was located into a 0.66-c M genetic interval.The orthologous subgenome region of PmTm4in Aegilops tauschii was identified,and two resistance gene analogs（RGA）were characterized from the corresponding sequence scaffolds of Ae.tauschii draft assembly.The closely linked markers and identified Ae.tauschii orthologs in the mapping interval provide an entry point for chromosome landing and map-based cloning of PmTm4.

Genomic analysis of a pure culture of magnetotactic bacterium Terasakiella sp.SH-1

Magnetotactic bacteria(MTB)display magnetotaxis ability because of biomineralization of intracellular nanometer-sized,membrane-bound organelles termed magnetosomes.Despite having been discovered more than half a century,only a few representatives of MTB have been isolated and cultured in the laboratory.In this study,we report the genomic characterization of a novel marine magnetotactic spirillum strain SH-1 belonging to the genus Terasakiella that was recently isolated.A gene encoding haloalkane dehalogenase,which is involved in the degradation of chlorocyclohexane,chlorobenzene,chloroalkane,and chloroalkene,was identified.SH-1 genome contained cysCHI and soxBAZYX genes,thus potentially capable of assimilatory sulfate reduction to H_(2)S and using thiosulfate as electron donors and oxidizing it to sulfate.Genome of SH-1 also contained genes encoding periplasmic dissimilatory nitrate reductases(napAB),assimilatory nitrate reductase(nasA)and assimilatory nitrite reductases(nasB),suggesting that it is capable of gaining energy by converting nitrate to ammonia.The pure culture of Terasakiella sp.SH-1 together with its genomic results off ers new opportunities to examine biology,physiology,and biomineralization mechanisms of MTB.

Rediscovery and analysis of Phytophthora carbohydrate esterase(CE) genes revealing their evolutionary diversity

A continuous co-evolutionary arms-race between pathogens and their host plants promotes the development of pathogenic factors by microbes, including carbohydrate esterase(CE) genes to overcome the barriers in plant cell walls. Identification of CEs is essential to facilitate their functional and evolutionary investigations; however, current methods may have a limit in detecting some conserved domains, and ignore evolutionary relationships of CEs, as well as do not distinguish CEs from proteases. Here, candidate CEs were annotated using conserved functional domains, and orthologous gene detection and phylogenetic relationships were used to identify new CEs in 16 oomycete genomes, excluding genes with protease domains. In our method, 41 new putative CEs were discovered comparing to current methods, including three CE4, 14 CE5, eight CE12, five CE13, and 11 CE14. We found that significantly more CEs were identified in Phytophthora than in Hyaloperonospora and Pythium, especially CE8, CE12, and CE13 that are putatively involved in pectin degradation. The abundance of these CEs in Phytophthora may be due to a high frequency of multiple-copy genes, supporting by the phylogenetic distribution of CE13 genes, which showed five units of Phytophthora CE13 gene clusters each displaying a species tree like topology, but without any gene from Hyaloperonospora or Pythium species. Additionally, diverse proteins associated with products of CE13 genes were identified in Phytophthora strains. Our analyses provide a highly effective method for CE discovery, complementing current methods, and have the potential to advance our understanding of function and evolution of CEs.

Computational Challenges in Deciphering Genomic Structures of Bacteria

This article addresses how the functionalities of the cellular machinery of a bacterium might have constrained the genomic arrangement of its genes during evolution and how we can study such problems using computational approaches, taking full advantage of the rapidly increasing pool of the sequenced bacterial genomes, potentially leading to a much improved understanding of why a bacterial genome is organized in the way it is. This article discusses a number of challenging computational problems in elucidating the genomic structures at multiple levels and the information that is encoded through these genomic structures, gearing towards the ultimate understanding of the governing rules of bacterial genome organization.

Understanding the commonalities and differences in genomic organizations across closely related bacteria from an energy perspective

The availability of a large number of sequenced bacterial genomes facilitates in-depth studies about why genes(operons)in a bacterial genome are globally organized the way they are.We have previously discovered that(the relative)transcription-activation frequencies among different biological pathways encoded in a genome have a dominating role in the global arrangement of operons.One complicating factor in such a study is that some operons may be involved in multiple pathways with different activation frequencies.A quantitative model has been developed that captures this information,which tends to be minimized by the current global arrangement of operons in a bacterial(and archaeal)genome compared to possible alternative arrangements.A study is carried out here using this model on a collection of 52 closely related Escherichia coli genomes,which revealed interesting new insights about how bacterial genomes evolve to optimally adapt to their environments through adjusting the(relative)genomic locations of the encoding operons of biological pathways once their utilization and hence transcription activation frequencies change,to maintain the above energy-efficiency property.More specifically we observed that it is the frequencies of the transcription activation of pathways relative to those of the other encoded pathways in an organism as well as the variation in the activation frequencies of a specific pathway across the related genomes that play a key role in the observed commonalities and differences in the genomic organizations of genes(and operons)encoding specific pathways across different genomes.

A Brief Review of Software Tools for Pangenomics

Since the proposal for pangenomic study, there have been a dozen software tools actively in use for pangenomic analysis. By the end of 2014, Panseq and the pan-genomes analysis pipeline（PGAP） ranked as the top two most popular packages according to cumulative citations of peerreviewed scientific publications. The functions of the software packages and tools, albeit variable among them, include categorizing orthologous genes, calculating pangenomic profiles, integrating gene annotations, and constructing phylogenies. As epigenomic elements are being gradually revealed in prokaryotes, it is expected that pangenomic databases and toolkits have to be extended to handle information of detailed functional annotations for genes and non-protein-coding sequences including non-coding RNAs, insertion elements, and conserved structural elements. To develop better bioinformatic tools, user feedback and integration of novel features are both of essence.