Comparative genomic analysis indicates that niche adaptation of terrestrial Flavobacteria is strongly linked to plant glycan metabolism.

ABSTRACT: Flavobacteria are important members of aquatic and terrestrial bacterial communities, displaying extreme variations in lifestyle, geographical distribution and genome size. They are ubiquitous in soil, but are often strongly enriched in the rhizosphere and phyllosphere of plants. In this study, we compared the genome of a root-associated Flavobacterium that we recently isolated, physiologically characterized and sequenced, to 14 additional Flavobacterium genomes, in order to pinpoint characteristics associated with its high abundance in the rhizosphere. Interestingly, flavobacterial genomes vary in size by approximately two-fold, with terrestrial isolates having predominantly larger genomes than those from aquatic environments. Comparative functional gene analysis revealed that terrestrial

SUBMITTER: Kolton M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3784431 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature