Microbial Genome Sequencing: Genomics of Life at Extreme Pressure

J. Craig Venter Institute, Inc., La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

One of the most remote regions on Earth is that of the deep-ocean trench environment. A consortium of scientists with expertise in deep-sea microbiology, molecular biology, whole-genome sequencing, annotation and comparative genomics has been assembled to obtain and characterize the genome sequence of a microbe from such a habitat. The organism, Colwellia strain MT41, was isolated from the deepest ocean trench, the Mariana Trench, at a depth of 10,476 meters. MT41 is among the most high-pressure-adapted (piezophilic) Bacteria or Archaea ever isolated requiring pressures of thousands of pounds per square inch (tens of megapascals) to grow, with a preferred pressure of approximately 15,000 pounds per square inch (~100 MPa) of hydrostatic pressure. MT41 is closely related to the atmospheric pressure-adapted Colwellia psychrerythraea 34H, whose genome sequence has recently been completed. Genome comparisons between MT41 and 34H, as well as between MT41 and other oceanic microbes, are likely to suggest many gene features required for the evolution of piezophily, and other aspects of life in the abyss. The genome sequence will also facilitate future functional genomic studies and analyses of enzyme structure and catalysis under conditions promoting low volume change. The broader impacts of the proposed study will most directly benefit undergraduate and graduate education. The genome sequence data generated by this proposal will be used as a primary case study to drive a comparative genomics course at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. A workshop for students given at The Institute for Genomic Research will also use the genome sequences of MT41 as a "real-world" example for the study of genomics.