Comparative Analysis of Lacinutrix Genomes and Their Association with Bacterial Habitat

Abstract

The genus <em>Lacinutrix</em>, which belongs to the family <em>Flavobacteriaceae</em>, consists of seven bacterial species that were mainly isolated from marine life and sediments. As most bacteria in the family<em> Flavobacteriaceae</em> favor aerobic conditions, the seven bacterial species in the genus<em> Lacinutrix </em>also showed aerobic growth. We selected four monophyletic bacterial species living in a polar environment. Two of these species were isolated from sediment and two types were isolated from algae. In a comparative analysis, we investigated how these different environments were related to genomic features of these four species in the genus <em>Lacinutrix</em>. We found that the gene sets for glycolysis, the Krebs cycle, and oxidative phosphorylation were conserved in these four type strains. However, the presence of nitrous oxide reductase for denitrification and the absence of essential components related to thiamin biosynthesis for aerobic respiration were only found in isolates from sediment. Elevated bacterial metabolism on the surface of marine sediments might limit the oxygen penetration into sediment, and such an environment might affect the genomes of bacteria isolated from these habitats.