The lion's share of bacteria in various environments cannot be cloned in the laboratory and thus cannot be sequenced using existing technologies. A major goal of single-cell genomics is to complement gene-centric metagenomic data with whole-genome assemblies of uncultivated organisms. Assembly of single-cell data is challenging because of highly non-uniform read coverage as well as elevated levels of sequencing errors and chimeric reads. We describe SPAdes, a new assembler for both single-cell and standard (multicell) assembly, and demonstrate that it improves on the recently released E+V-SC assembler (specialized for single-cell data) and on popular assemblers Velvet and SoapDeNovo (for multicell data). SPAdes generates single-cell assemblies, providing information about genomes of uncultivatable bacteria that vastly exceeds what may be obtained via traditional metagenomics studies. SPAdes is available online ( http://bioinf.spbau.ru/spades ). It is distributed as open source software.

SPAdes, a new genome assembly algorithm and its applications to single-cell sequencing ( 7th Annual SFAF Meeting, 2012)

Bacillus thuringiensis, a leading biorational pesticide in the parasporal cycle, is considered to be a valuable source of commercially effective biopesticide for various isolates and subspecies at the stationary stage of its growth cycle. Control of some species of insecticide between Lepidoptera, Diptera, and Coleoptera. Blends should have the lowest resemblance toxins and a variety of action mechanisms, as their activity is the highest. Cry protein is completely different from conventional chemical pesticides that have made Cry Protein a core component of advanced natural insect resistance and predatory patterns.

Bacillus thuringiensis and its pesticidal crystal proteins

There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact. Mark Twain 1883  Life on the Mississippi

Prophages and bacterial genomics: what have we learned so far?: what have we learned so far?

Strains of Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) are commonly commercialized as bioinoculants for insect pest control, but their benefits go beyond their insecticidal property: they can act as plant growth-promoters. Auxins play a major role in the plant growth promotion. However, the mechanism of auxin production by the Bacilli group, and more specifically by Bt strains, is unclear. In previous work, the plant growth-promoting rhizobacterium (PGPR) B. thuringiensis strain RZ2MS9 increased the corn roots. This drew our attention to the strain's auxin production trait, earlier detected in vitro. Here, we demonstrate that in its genome, RZ2MS9 harbours the complete set of genes required in two pathways that are used for Indole acetic acid (IAA) production. We also detected that the strain produces almost five times more IAA during the stationary phase. The bacterial application increased the shoot dry weight of the Micro-Tom (MT) tomato by 24%. The application also modified MT root architecture, with an increase of 26% in the average lateral root length and inhibition of the axial root. At the cellular level, RZ2MS9-treated MT plants presented elongated root cortical cells with intensified mitotic activity. Altogether, these are the best characterized auxin-associated phenotypes. Besides that, no growth alteration was detected in the auxin-insensitive diageotropic (dgt) plants either with or without the RZ2MS9 inoculation. Our results suggest that auxins play an important role in the ability of B. thuringiensis RZ2MS9 to promote MT growth and provide a better understanding of the auxin production mechanism by a Bt strain.

The auxin-producing Bacillus thuringiensis RZ2MS9 promotes the growth and modifies the root architecture of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum cv. Micro-Tom)

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global crisis for human public health which threatens the effective prevention and control of ever-increasing infectious diseases. The advent of pandrug-resistant bacteria makes most, if not all, available antibiotics invalid. Meanwhile, the pipeline of novel antibiotics development stagnates, which prompts scientists and pharmacists to develop unconventional antimicrobials. Bacteriophage-derived endolysins are cell wall hydrolases which could hydrolyze the peptidoglycan layer from within and outside of bacterial pathogens. With high specificity, rapid action, high efficiency, and low risk of resistance development, endolysins are believed to be among the best alternative therapeutic agents to treat multidrug resistant (MDR) bacteria. As of now, endolysins have been applied to diverse aspects. In this review, we comprehensively introduce the structures and activities of endolysins and summarize the latest application progress of recombinant endolysins in the fields of medical treatment, pathogen diagnosis, food safety, and agriculture.

Endolysin, a Promising Solution against Antimicrobial Resistance.

The phage vB_BthS-HD29phi infecting Bacillus thuringiensis strain HD29 was isolated and purified. The morphology of the phage showed that it belongs to the family Siphoviridae. The phage genome was 32,181 bp in length, comprised linear double-stranded DNA with an average G + C content of 34.9%, and exhibited low similarity to known phage genomes. Genomic and phylogenetic analysis revealed that vB_BthS-HD29phi is a novel phage. In total, 50 putative ORFs were predicted in the phage genome, and only 18 ORFs encoded proteins with known functions. This article reports the genome sequence of a new tailed phage and increases the known genetic diversity of tailed phages.

Complete genome sequence of the novel phage vB_BthS-HD29phi infecting Bacillus thuringiensis

Bacillus thuringiensis is widely used in producing ecofriendly microbial agents for the purpose of controlling insect pests. In this study, we determined the complete genome sequence of B. thuringiensis subsp. jinghongiensis reference strain YGd22-03, which contains three cry genes and one cerecidin biosynthetic gene cluster.

https://journals.asm.org/doi/pdf/10.1128/genomeA.00740-17

Yajuan Fu

Papers

Complete genome sequence of the novel phage vB_BthS-HD29phi infecting Bacillus thuringiensis

Complete genome sequence of Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. jinghongiensis reference strain YGd22-03.

A Novel Phthalate Hydrolase Contributing to Wastewater Remediation by Bacillus Sp. Lunf1