Complete genome sequence of the industrial bacterium Bacillus licheniformis and comparisons with closely related Bacillus species

BACKGROUND: Bacillus licheniformis is a Gram-positive, spore-forming soil bacterium that is used in the biotechnology industry to manufacture enzymes, antibiotics, biochemicals and consumer products. This species is closely related to the well studied model organism Bacillus subtilis, and produces an assortment of extracellular enzymes that may contribute to nutrient cycling in nature. RESULTS: We determined the complete nucleotide sequence of the B. licheniformis ATCC 14580 genome which comprises a circular chromosome of 4,222,336 base-pairs (bp) containing 4,208 predicted protein-coding genes with an average size of 873 bp, seven rRNA operons, and 72 tRNA genes. The B. licheniformis chromosome contains large regions that are colinear with the genomes of B. subtilis and Bacillus halodurans, and approximately 80% of the predicted B. licheniformis coding sequences have B. subtilis orthologs. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the unmistakable organizational similarities between the B. licheniformis and B. subtilis genomes, there are notable differences in the numbers and locations of prophages, transposable elements and a number of extracellular enzymes and secondary metabolic pathway operons that distinguish these species. Differences include a region of more than 80 kilobases (kb) that comprises a cluster of polyketide synthase genes and a second operon of 38 kb encoding plipastatin synthase enzymes that are absent in the B. licheniformis genome. The availability of a completed genome sequence for B. licheniformis should facilitate the design and construction of improved industrial strains and allow for comparative genomics and evolutionary studies within this group of Bacillaceae

Two- and three-dimensional similarity plots comparing the distribution of orthologs on the chromosomes of , and

<p><b>Copyright information:</b></p><p>Taken from "Complete genome sequence of the industrial bacterium and comparisons with closely related species"</p><p>Genome Biology 2004;5(10):r77-r77.</p><p>Published online 13 Sep 2004</p><p>PMCID:PMC545597.</p><p>Copyright © 2004 Rey et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.</p> BLAST scores were generated and dots were positioned according to the locations in the genome where orthologs exist in order to view possible regions of possible colinearity. The minimum BLAST expectancy score for each dot in this example was 1 × 10. The plot for versus ; versus ; versus ; a three-dimensional scatter plot comparing the distribution of orthologs among all three species. Dots located on the diagonal are indicative of conserved location of orthologous genes between species, whereas a line of dots that lie perpendicular to the diagonal suggests an inversion of a genomic segment between species