Abstract
Francisella tularensis is a highly infectious human intracellular pathogen that is the causative agent of tularemia. It occurs in several major subtypes, including the live vaccine strain holarctica (type B). F. tularensis is classified as category A biodefense agent in part because a relatively small number of organisms can cause severe illness. Three complete genomes of subspecies holarctica have been sequenced and deposited in public archives, of which OSU18 was the first and the only strain for which a scientific publication has appeared [1]. We re-assembled the OSU18 strain using both de novo and comparative assembly techniques, and found that the published sequence has two large inversion mis-assemblies. We generated a corrected assembly of the entire genome along with detailed information on the placement of individual reads within the assembly. This assembly will provide a more accurate basis for future comparative studies of this pathogen.
Highlights
Francisella tularensis is highly infectious human pathogen that can cause illness after exposure to as few as 10 organisms [2]
The 68,462 F. tularensis OSU18 reads were generated from clone inserts averaging 2000–3000 bp; the paired-end information was provided to our assembly methods
The numbers of de novo contigs generated by Petrusino et al (134) and by Celera assembler (CA) (163) are relatively high for a bacterial genome sequenced at 236coverage
Summary
Francisella tularensis is highly infectious human pathogen that can cause illness after exposure to as few as 10 organisms [2]. It was examined for military purposes in Japan, the former Soviet Union, and the United States at various times during the mid-20th century [2], and it is still considered a serious bioterrorism threat. Because of its importance as a biothreat agent, F. tularensis has been the subject of intense genome sequencing efforts: seven strains have been completely sequenced and at least twelve more are in progress. If a question arises about the correctness of the genome sequence, one cannot examine the experimental evidence that underlies the genome to see if there is any ambiguity or uncertainty
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