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Insights into the 1.59-Mbp largest plasmid of Azospirillum brasilense CBG497

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Abstract

The plant growth-promoting proteobacterium Azospirillum brasilense enhances growth of many economically important crops, such as wheat, maize, and rice. The sequencing and annotation of the 1.59-Mbp replicon of A. brasilense CBG497, a strain isolated from a maize rhizosphere grown on an alkaline soil in the northeast of Mexico, revealed a GC content of 68.7 % and the presence of 1,430 potential protein-encoding genes, 1,147 of them classified into clusters of orthologous groups categories, and 16 tRNA genes representing 11 tRNA species. The presence of sixty-two genes representatives of the minimal gene set and chromid core genes suggests its importance in bacterial survival. The phaAB → G operon, reported as involved in the bacterial adaptation to alkaline pH in the presence of K+, was also found on this replicon and detected in several Azospirillum strains. Phylogenetic analysis suggests that it was laterally acquired. We were not able to show its inference on the adaptation to basic pH, giving a hint about the presence of an alternative system for adaptation to alkaline pH.

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Acknowledgments

Erika Acosta-Cruz acknowledges support from CONACyT and SIP-IPN through Ph.D. fellowships. We also thank Alberto Mendoza and the CBG IPN for providing bacterial strains and facilities. This work was partially funded by projects 48044 from CONACyT to MV and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique to PM.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio de Microbiología Agrícola, Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas, IPN, México D.F., Mexico

    Erika Acosta-Cruz & María Valdés

  2. Université Lyon 1, UMR CNRS 5557, VetAgro Sup, INRA USC 1190, Ecologie Microbienne, Villeurbanne cedex, France

    Florence Wisniewski-Dyé & Patrick Mavingui

  3. CEA, DSV, IG, Genoscope, 2 rue Gaston Crémieux, CP5706, 91057, Evry Cedex, France

    Zoé Rouy & Valérie Barbe

  4. Université Lyon 1, UMR CNRS 5557, VetAgro Sup, INRA USC 1190, Ecologie Microbienne, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622, Villeurbanne cedex, France

    Patrick Mavingui

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  1. Erika Acosta-Cruz
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  2. Florence Wisniewski-Dyé
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  3. Zoé Rouy
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  4. Valérie Barbe
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  5. María Valdés
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  6. Patrick Mavingui
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Correspondence to Patrick Mavingui.

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Communicated by Erko Stackebrandt.

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Acosta-Cruz, E., Wisniewski-Dyé, F., Rouy, Z. et al. Insights into the 1.59-Mbp largest plasmid of Azospirillum brasilense CBG497. Arch Microbiol 194, 725–736 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-012-0805-2

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