Draft Genome Sequence of a Moderately Halophilic Bacillus megaterium Strain, MSP20.1, Isolated from a Saltern of the Little Rann of Kutch, India

Abstract

The genomes of a number of species of Bacillus which can thrive in the salinity gradients (0 to 35% NaCl) of the hypersaline habitats of the Great and Little Rann of Kutch, India, were sequenced recently with a view to understanding the mechanism(s) of osmotolerance (1–5). Bacillus megaterium strain MSP20.1 (16SrRNA GenBank accession number JF802191), isolated from a saltern of the Little Rann of Kutch, India, grows optimally at a concentration of 7.5% NaCl (range, 0 to 20%) in the growth medium, at pH 7.0 and 37°C. The genome of MSP20.1 was sequenced to gain understanding of its moderate halophilism. The genome of MSP20.1 was sequenced using the Illumina HiSeq 2000 platform at Macrogen, Inc., South Korea, through Sequencher Tech Pvt., Ltd., Ahmedabad, India. Originally, a total of 69,373,018 paired-end reads with lengths of 72 nucleotides of 7,006,674,818 bases were generated, which, after filtering and removal of PCR duplicates, resulted in 61,462,320 reads of 6,207,694,320 bases.