The complete Corynebacterium glutamicum ATCC 13032 genome sequence and its impact on the production of L-aspartate-derived amino acids and vitamins

The complete genomic sequence of Corynebacterium glutainicum ATCC 13032, well-known in industry for the production of amino acids, e.g. of L-glutamate and L-lysine was determined. The C glutamician genome was found to consist of a single circular chromosome comprising 3 282 708 base pairs. Several DNA regions of unusual composition were identified that were potentially acquired by horizontal gene transfer, e.g. a segment of DNA from C diphtheriae and a prophage-containing region. After automated and manual annotation, 3002 protein-coding genes have been identified, and to 2489 of these, functions were assigned by homologies to known proteins. These analyses confirm the taxonomic position of C glutamicum as related to Mycobacteria and show a broad metabolic diversity as expected for a bacterium living in the soil. As an example for biotechnological application the complete genome sequence was used to reconstruct the metabolic flow of carbon into a number of industrially important products derived from the amino acid L-aspartate. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.