Draft genome sequence of Halomonas meridiana R1t3 isolated from the surface microbiota of the Caribbean Elkhorn coral Acropora palmata.

Julie L Meyer,Valerie J Paul,John M Rodgers,Kim B Ritchie,Max Teplitski,Brian A Dillard

doi:10.1186/s40793-015-0069-y

Abstract

Members of the gammaproteobacterial genus Halomonas are common in marine environments. Halomonas and other members of the Oceanospirillales have recently been identified as prominent members of the surface microbiota of reef-building corals. Halomonas meridiana strain R1t3 was isolated from the surface mucus layer of the scleractinian coral Acropora palmata in 2005 from the Florida Keys. This strain was chosen for genome sequencing to provide insight into the role of commensal heterotrophic bacteria in the coral holobiont. The draft genome consists of 290 scaffolds, totaling 3.5 Mbp in length and contains 3397 protein-coding genes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40793-015-0069-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Highlights

As the name denotes, the first isolated members of the genus Halomonas were acquired from saline environments, and members of this halotolerant genus are increasingly isolated from a wide variety of marine environments
Members of the Oceanospirillales are increasingly identified as important components of the stable, commensal coral microbiota, and the loss of commensal bacteria is often correlated with disease symptoms [6,7,8]
Symbiotaxonomy Halomonas strain R1t3 was isolated from the surface mucus layer of the scleractinian coral Acropora palmata Lamarck 1816, Fig. 2 Phylogenetic tree of H. meridiana strain R1t3 and other Halomonas spp. associated with corals

Summary

Introduction

The first isolated members of the genus Halomonas were acquired from saline environments, and members of this halotolerant genus are increasingly isolated from a wide variety of marine environments. We chose H. meridiana strain R1t3 for whole genome sequencing as a representative coral commensal bacterium from Acropora corals. The small subunit ribosomal RNA gene sequence of Halomonas strain R1t3 is nearly indistinguishable from the sequence in type strains of both H. meridiana and H. aquamarina (Fig. 1).

Results

Conclusion