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Introduction: Alicyclobacillus has been isolated from extreme environments such as hot springs, volcanoes, as well as pasteurized acidic beverages, because it can tolerate extreme temperatures and acidity. In our previous study, Alicyclobacillus was isolated during the enrichment of methane oxidizing bacteria from Yellowstone Hot Spring samples., Methods: Physiological characterization and genomic exploration of two new Alicyclobacillus isolates, AL01A and AL05G, are the main focus of this study to identify their potential relationships with a thermoacidophilic methanotroph ( Methylacidiphilum ) isolated from the same hot spring sediments., Results and Discussion: In the present study, both Alicyclobacillus isolates showed optimal growth at pH 3.5 and 55°C, and contain ω-alicyclic fatty acids as a major lipid ( ca. 60%) in the bacterial membrane. Genomic analysis of these strains revealed specific genes and pathways that the methanotroph genome does not have in the intermediary carbon metabolism pathway such as serC (phosphoserine aminotransferase), comA (phosphosulfolactate synthase), and DAK (glycerone kinase). Both Alicyclobacillus strains were also found to contain transporter systems for extracellular sulfate (ABC transporter), suggesting that they could play an important role in sulfur metabolism in this extreme environment. Genomic analysis of vitamin metabolism revealed Alicyclobacillus and Methylacidiphilum are able to complement each other's nutritional deficiencies, resulting in a mutually beneficial relationship, especially in vitamin B 1 (thiamin), B 3 (niacin), and B 7 (biotin) metabolism. These findings provide insights into the role of Alicyclobacillus isolates in geothermal environments and their unique metabolic adaptations to these environments., Competing Interests: DP and PL are employed by Shell. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The handling editor DM-D declared a shared affiliation with the authors HK, NK, AP, RW, CR, and RM at the time of review., (Copyright © 2023 Kim, Kim, Phillips, Parker, Liu, Whitaker, Rao and Mackie.)

Objectives: Spiroplasma citri is a bacterium with a wide host range and is the causal agent of citrus stubborn and brittle root diseases of citrus and horseradish, respectively. S. citri is transmitted in a circulative, persistent manner by the beet leafhopper, Neoaliturus (Circulifer) tenellus (Baker), in North America. Five strains of S. citri were cultured from citrus, horseradish, and N. tenellus from different habitats and times. DNA from cultures were sequenced and genome assembled to expand the database to improve detection assays and better understand its genetics and evolution., Data Description: The whole genome sequence of five strains of S. citri are described herein. The S. citri chromosome was circularized for all five strains and ranged from 1,576,550 to 1,742,208 bp with a G + C content of 25.4-25.6%. Characterization of extrachromosomal DNAs resulted in identification of one or two plasmids, with a G + C content of 23.3 to 27.6%, from plant hosts; and eight or nine plasmids, with a G + C content of 21.65 to 29.19%, from N. tenellus. Total genome size ranged from 1,611,714 to 1,832,173 bp from plants and 1,968,976 to 2,155,613 bp from the leafhopper. All sequence data has been deposited in DDBJ/ENA/GenBank under the accession numbers CP046368-CP046373 and CP047426-CP047446.

A current trend in winemaking has highlighted the beneficial contribution of non- Saccharomyces yeasts to wine quality. Hanseniaspora uvarum is one of the more represented non- Saccharomyces species onto grape berries and plays a critical role in influencing the wine sensory profile, in terms of complexity and organoleptic richness. In this work, we analyzed a group of H. uvarum indigenous wine strains as for genetic as for technological traits, such as resistance to SO 2 and β-glucosidase activity. Three strains were selected for genome sequencing, assembly and comparative genomic analyses at species and genus level. Hanseniaspora genomes appeared compact and contained a moderate number of genes, while rarefaction analyses suggested an open accessory genome, reflecting a rather incomplete representation of the Hanseniaspora gene pool in the currently available genomes. The analyses of patterns of functional annotation in the three indigenous H. uvarum strains showed distinct enrichment for several PFAM protein domains. In particular, for certain traits, such as flocculation related protein domains, the genetic prediction correlated well with relative flocculation phenotypes at lab-scale. This feature, together with the enrichment for oligo-peptide transport and lipid and amino acid metabolism domains, reveals a promising potential of these indigenous strains to be applied in fermentation processes and modulation of wine flavor and aroma. This study also contributes to increasing the catalog of publicly available genomes from H. uvarum strains isolated from natural grape samples and provides a good roadmap for unraveling the biodiversity and the biotechnological potential of these non- Saccharomyces yeasts., (Copyright © 2020 Guaragnella, Chiara, Capece, Romano, Pietrafesa, Siesto, Manzari and Pesole.)

Hanseanispora species, including H. guilliermondii, are long known to be abundant in wine grape-musts and to play a critical role in vinification by modulating, among other aspects, the wine sensory profile. Despite this, the genetics and physiology of Hanseniaspora species remains poorly understood. The first genomic sequence of a H. guilliermondii strain (UTAD222) and the discussion of its potential significance are presented in this work. Metabolic reconstruction revealed that H. guilliermondii is not equipped with a functional gluconeogenesis or glyoxylate cycle, nor does it harbours key enzymes for glycerol or galactose catabolism or for biosynthesis of biotin and thiamine. Also, no fructose-specific transporter could also be predicted from the analysis of H. guilliermondii genome leaving open the mechanisms underlying the fructophilic character of this yeast. Comparative analysis involving H. guilliermondii, H. uvarum, H. opuntiae and S. cerevisiae revealed 14 H. guilliermondii-specific genes (including five viral proteins and one β-glucosidase). Furthermore, 870 proteins were only found within the Hanseniaspora proteomes including several β-glucosidases and decarboxylases required for catabolism of biogenic amines. The release of H. guilliermondii genomic sequence and the comparative genomics/proteomics analyses performed, is expected to accelerate research focused on Hanseniaspora species and to broaden their application in the wine industry and in other bio-industries in which they could be explored as cell factories., (© The Author(s) 2018. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Kazusa DNA Research Institute.)

BLB406 is a novel isolate of Bacillus thuringiensis with a larvicidal activity against Aedes aegypti larvae. It displays original plasmidic and crystal protein patterns. The present work reported molecular and bioinformatic analyses for the genome sequence of BLB406 using MiSeq Illumina next-generation sequencing technology. The reads were assembled by Velvet tool. Using RAST program and PGAAP, the genome of BLB406 strain was shown to contain 6297 genes corresponding to 5924 protein coding sequences. The BLB406 genome investigation with BtToxin_scanner program shows that this strain has an original and different combination of toxins compared to the published ones: five cry genes (cry11, cry22, cry2, cry60, cry64) and two distinct vegetative insecticidal vip4 genes. This combination provides a potential larvicidal and anti-cancer activities to BLB406. It might be a potential solution to some problems such as the narrow insecticidal spectra and insect resistance. The whole BLB406 genome information provides a valuable background for future in silico analyses as well as biotechnological applications in order to increase the production of commercial bioinsecticide based on BLB406 B. thuringiensis strain., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

In this work, it is described the sequencing and annotation of the genome of the yeast strain ISA1307, isolated from a sparkling wine continuous production plant. This strain, formerly considered of the Zygosaccharomyces bailii species, has been used to study Z. bailii physiology, in particular, its extreme tolerance to acetic acid stress at low pH. The analysis of the genome sequence described in this work indicates that strain ISA1307 is an interspecies hybrid between Z. bailii and a closely related species. The genome sequence of ISA1307 is distributed through 154 scaffolds and has a size of around 21.2 Mb, corresponding to 96% of the genome size estimated by flow cytometry. Annotation of ISA1307 genome includes 4385 duplicated genes (∼ 90% of the total number of predicted genes) and 1155 predicted single-copy genes. The functional categories including a higher number of genes are 'Metabolism and generation of energy', 'Protein folding, modification and targeting' and 'Biogenesis of cellular components'. The knowledge of the genome sequence of the ISA1307 strain is expected to contribute to accelerate systems-level understanding of stress resistance mechanisms in Z. bailii and to inspire and guide novel biotechnological applications of this yeast species/strain in fermentation processes, given its high resilience to acidic stress. The availability of the ISA1307 genome sequence also paves the way to a better understanding of the genetic mechanisms underlying the generation and selection of more robust hybrid yeast strains in the stressful environment of wine fermentations., (© The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Kazusa DNA Research Institute.)