The Ravel Laboratory for Microbial Genomics
Insight into the evolutionary history of Bacillus subtilis
Collaborators: Roberto Kolter and Richard Losick, Harvard University
Funding: NSF
Bacillus subtilis is a model Gram-positive ubiquitous soil bacterium capable of forming endospores. Since its discovery in Marburg (Germany) during the late 1800’s, there have been nearly 20,000 publications addressing various aspects of B. subtilis biology, leading to a level of understanding of this microbe that is virtually unparalleled in the life sciences. The results from these studies have had broad implications not only towards understanding other Gram-positive bacilli, but also for organisms from all domains of life. On the applied side, B. subtilis is one of the most widely used bacteria for the production of specialty chemicals and industrial enzymes. In this project, after extensive consultation with more than 100 leading scientists in the Bacillus international community and their enthusiastic support, we propose to fully sequence, annotate, and analyze the genomes of one additional B. subtilis (TU-B-10, W23 group) and one of B. subtilis’ closest relatives, B. mojavensis (RO-H-1). An additional goal of this application is to provide high quality draft coverage of at least two additional strains of B. subtilis, NCIB3610 (a potential ancestor to B. subtilis 168) and RO-NN-1 (a wild isolate from the Bsu168 group). Comparative analyses of multiple genomes from B. subtilis and close relatives will shed further light on the physiology, evolution and ecology of this important group of organisms. In addition, access to these new genome sequences will expand our understanding of gene flow and speciation among sympatric soil Bacilli. This project will not only influence current work, but also is likely to stimulate new areas of research.
The interest and support that this project has stimulated in the Bacillus subtilis research community was overwhelming, and is a true representation of the broader impact of the proposed research. This proposal has the potential to strengthen the link and interaction within the international B. subtilis community, as suggested by Sierd Bron, the Chairman of BACELL, the European Bacillus research community organization. This project will take the B. subtilis research community into the 21st century.
For additional information and access the sequences of these isolates visit:
http://www.bacillusgenomics.org/bsubtilis
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