[Hsiu-An Chu and Chih-Horng Kuo] Comparative analysis reveals distinctive genomic features of Taiwan hot-spring cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus sp. TA-1
POST:
Thermosynechococcus is a genus of thermophilic unicellular cyanobacteria that dominates microbial mats in Asian non-acidic hot springs. These cyanobacteria are the major primary producers in their ecological niches and are promising sources of thermostable enzymes for biotechnology applications. A novel strain, Thermosynechococcus sp. TA-1, was collected from the Tai-An hot-spring in Miaoli and isolated by Dr. Jyh-Yih Leu at Fu-Jen Catholic University. Two research groups in our institute, leading by Drs. Hsiu-An Chu and Chih-Horng Kuo, collaborated to complete the whole genome sequencing and comparative analysis across different species. Analyses based on average nucleotide identity (ANI) and genome-scale phylogeny suggested that TA-1 and another Taiwanese strain CL-1 belong to a novel species-level taxon. Intriguingly, although TA-1 and CL-1 share 97.0% ANI, the genome alignment identified at least 16 synteny breakpoints that are mostly associated with transposase genes, which illustrates the dynamic nature of their chromosomal evolution. Gene content comparisons identified multiple features distinct at species- or strain-level among these Thermosynechococcus representatives. Knowledge of the genomic differentiation among these strains provides valuable resources for future functional characterization and biotechnology applications. This study has been published in the international journal Frontiers in Microbiology.
Cheng, Y.-I., Lin, Y.-C., Leu, J.-Y., Kuo, C.-H., and Chu, H.-A. (2022). Comparative analysis reveals distinctive genomic features of Taiwan hot-spring cyanobacterium Thermosynechococcus sp. TA-1. Front Microbiol 13, 932840.