Draft Genome Sequence of an Obligate and Moderately Halophilic Bacterium, Thalassobacillus devorans Strain MSP14, the First Draft Genome of the Genus Thalassobacillus

Abstract

The genomes of a number of halophilic bacilli, isolated from the salt crystallizers of the Rann of Kutch, Gujarat, India, have been sequenced with a view to understanding the mechanism(s) of osmotolerance (1–4). Thalassobacillus devorans strain MSP14 (16S rRNA, GenBank accession no. JX518269), an obligate but moderately halophilic bacterium, was isolated from a salt crystallizer of the Little Rann of Kutch, India. It grows optimally at a concentration of 7.5% NaCl (range, 5 to 15%) in medium at 37°C and pH 7.5. The present genome of MSP14 was sequenced to understand the mechanism(s) of obligate, but moderate, halophilism. By use of the Roche 454 genome sequencer (GS FLX), the genome of Thalassobacillus devorans strain MSP14 (G C content of 42.97%) was sequenced at Macrogen, Inc., South Korea, through Sequencher Tech Pvt., Ltd., Ahmedabad, India. Both shotgun and 3-kb mate-paired library sequencing were performed. Whereas sequencing of shotgun libraries generated 787,155 reads of 439,717,712 bases (average read length of 558 bp), mate-paired libraries generated 140,683 and 131,751 reads of 62,893,040 and 57,724,648 bases, respectively, with average read lengths of 447 and 438 bp, respectively.