Affiliation:
1. Department of Medical Physics, College of Science, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq
2. Department of Biology, College of Science, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq
3. Mosul Technical Institute, Northern Technical University, Mosul, Iraq
Abstract
Background:
Cyanobacteria are a widely dominated group of microorganisms in nature that produce a diverse range of metabolites. Whilst the enormous number of bacterial genomes has deposited in the public databases, the number of cyanobacterial genomes remains limited.
Aims:
This study aimed to sequence the whole genome of an Iraqi cyanobacterium isolate, designed as Microcoleus sp. HI-ES.
Methods:
Microcoleus sp. HI-ES was isolated from a freshwater sample collected from the Mosul Dam lake. GB-11 liquid medium was used for primary isolation whereas agarose-GB-11 medium supplemented with lysozyme (100 µg/ml), imipenem (100 µg/ml), streptomycin (100 µg/ml), and cycloheximide (20 µg/ml) was used to obtain an axenic Microcoleus sp. HI-ES culture. Specialized bioinformatics tools were used for genome assembly, annotation, whole genome-based taxonomy analysis, in
silico whole genome DNA-DNA hybridization (isDDH), and biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs) detection.
Results:
The results showed that Microcoleus sp. HI-ES genome consists of 4,671,230 bp with a GC content of 47.7% distributed within 6417 contigs and a total of 6264 coding sequences. The whole genome-based phylogeny and isDDH values showed that Microcoleus sp. HI-ES is closed to the type strains: Microcoleus
asticus IPMA8, Microcoleus vaginatus PCC 9802, M. vaginatus FGP-2, and Oscillatoria nigroviridis PCC 7112 with isDDH values of 61.7%, 59.8%, 59.8%, and 54.5%, respectively. Ten secondary metabolite BGCs were predicted in Microcoleus sp. HI-ES including four nonrobosomal peptides (NRPs) such as one NRPs, two resorcinol, two terpenes, and one T1PKS. The draft genome sequence of Microcoleus sp. HI-ES has been deposited at DDBJ/ENA/GenBank under the accession number JAPTMT000000000.
Conclusion:
The contribution of the depositing of the whole genome sequencing of Microcoleus sp. HI-ES, an Iraqi cyanobacterial strain, in public genbank databases will benefit the scientific community to understanding the potential of this cyanobacterial strain as a promising natural product producer.