Publication
Title
Closing the genome of unculturable cable bacteria using a combined metagenomic assembly of long and short sequencing reads
Author
Abstract
Many environmentally relevant micro-organisms cannot be cultured, and even with the latest metagenomic approaches, achieving complete genomes for specific target organisms of interest remains a challenge. Cable bacteria provide a prominent example of a microbial ecosystem engineer that is currently unculturable. They occur in low abundance in natural sediments, but due to their capability for long-distance electron transport, they exert a disproportionately large impact on the biogeochemistry of their environment. Current available genomes of marine cable bacteria are highly fragmented and incomplete, hampering the elucidation of their unique electrogenic physiology. Here, we present a metagenomic pipeline that combines Nanopore long-read and Illumina short-read shotgun sequencing. Starting from a clonal enrichment of a cable bacterium, we recovered a circular metagenome-assembled genome (5.09 Mbp in size), which represents a novel cable bacterium species with the proposed name Candidatus Electrothrix scaldis. The closed genome contains 1109 novel identified genes, including key metabolic enzymes not previously described in incomplete genomes of cable bacteria. We examined in detail the factors leading to genome closure. Foremost, native, non-amplified long reads are crucial to resolve the many repetitive regions within the genome of cable bacteria, and by analysing the whole metagenomic assembly, we found that low strain diversity is key for achieving genome closure. The insights and approaches presented here could help achieve genome closure for other keystone micro-organisms present in complex environmental samples at low abundance.
Language
English
Source (journal)
Microbial Genomics / Microbiology Society
Publication
Microbiology Society , 2024
ISSN
2057-5858
DOI
10.1099/MGEN.0.001197
Volume/pages
10 :2 (2024) , p. 1-15
Article Reference
001197
ISI
001206004700010
Pubmed ID
38376381
Full text (Publisher's DOI)
Full text (open access)
UAntwerpen
Faculty/Department
Research group
Project info
Biogeochemical cycling, redox transformations and microbial actors in electrified sediment ecosystems.
Compositional characterization of the conductive structures enabling centimetre-scale electron transport in cable bacteria.
Publication type
Subject
Affiliation
Publications with a UAntwerp address
External links
Web of Science
Record
Identifier
Creation 14.04.2024
Last edited 06.07.2024
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