Open AccessA genome sequence survey of the mollicute corn stunt spiroplasma Spiroplasma kunkelii
Author(s) -
Bai Xiaodong,
Hogenhout Saskia A
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2002.tb11153.x
Subject(s) - spiroplasma , biology , genome , whole genome sequencing , genetics , leafhopper , gene , mollicutes , dna sequencing , phytoplasma , polymerase chain reaction , restriction fragment length polymorphism , bacteria , botany , hemiptera
The mollicute corn stunt spiroplasma (Spiroplasma kunkelii) is a leafhopper-transmitted pathogen of maize. Sequencing of the approximately 1.6-Mb genome of S. kunkelii was initiated to aid understanding the genetic basis of spiroplasma interactions with their plant and leafhopper hosts. In total, 144712 nucleotides of non-redundant, high-quality S. kunkelii genome sequence were obtained. Sequence tags were searched against the Mycoplasmataceae and Bacillus/Clostridium databases. Results showed that, in addition to spiroplasma phage SpV1 DNA insertions, spiroplasma genomes harbor more purine and amino acid biosynthesis, transcription regulation, cell envelope and DNA transport/binding genes than Mycoplasmataceae genomes. This investigation demonstrates that survey sequencing is an efficient procedure for gene discovery and genome characterization. The results of the S. kunkelii sequencing project are available at the Spiroplasma WebPage at http://www.oardc.ohio-state.edu/spiroplasma/genome.htm.