Assessment of Erythrobacter Species Diversity through Pan-Genome Analysis with Newly Isolated Erythrobacter sp. 3-20A1M.

Erythrobacter species are extensively studied marine bacteria that produce various carotenoids. Due to their photoheterotrophic ability, it has been suggested that they play a crucial role in marine ecosystems. It is essential to identify the genome sequence and the genes of the species to predict their role in the marine ecosystem. In this study, we report the complete genome sequence of the marine bacterium Erythrobacter sp. 3-20A1M. The genome size was 3.1 Mbp and its GC content was 64.8%. In total, 2998 genetic features were annotated, of which 2882 were annotated as functional coding genes. Using the genetic information of Erythrobacter sp. 3-20A1M, we performed pangenome analysis with other Erythrobacter species. This revealed highly conserved secondary metabolite biosynthesis-related COG functions across Erythrobacter species. Through subsequent secondary metabolite biosynthetic gene cluster prediction and KEGG analysis, the carotenoid biosynthetic pathway was proven conserved in all Erythrobacter species, except for the spheroidene and spirilloxanthin pathways, which are only found in photosynthetic Erythrobacter species. The presence of virulence genes, especially the plant-algae cell wall degrading genes, revealed that Erythrobacter sp. 3-20A1M is a potential marine plant-algae scavenger.

Simple, rapid and cost-effective method for high quality nucleic acids extraction from different strains of Botryococcus braunii.

This study deals with an effective nucleic acids extraction method from various strains of Botryococcus braunii which possesses an extensive extracellular matrix. A method combining freeze/thaw and bead-beating with heterogeneous diameter of silica/zirconia beads was optimized to isolate DNA and RNA from microalgae, especially from B. braunii. Eukaryotic Microalgal Nucleic Acids Extraction (EMNE) method developed in this study showed at least 300 times higher DNA yield in all strains of B. braunii with high integrity and 50 times reduced working volume compared to commercially available DNA extraction kits. High quality RNA was also extracted using this method and more than two times the yield compared to existing methods. Real-time experiments confirmed the quality and quantity of the input DNA and RNA extracted using EMNE method. The method was also applied to other eukaryotic microalgae, such as diatoms, Chlamydomonas sp., Chlorella sp., and Scenedesmus sp. resulting in higher efficiencies. Cost-effectiveness analysis of DNA extraction by various methods revealed that EMNE method was superior to commercial kits and other reported methods by >15%. This method would immensely contribute to area of microalgal genomics.