Research Projects

Genome Sequencing of two Antarctic bacteria - a marine Actinobacterium, str. PHSC20C1 and a sea-ice associated bacterium, Polaribacter irgensii, 23-P

PI: Alison Murray

Project Period: September 2004 - Present

Supported by: The Marine Microbiology Initiative Program at the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Right: Phase contrast (top) and electron micrograph (bottom) of Polaribacter irgensii 23-P.
Image source: Gosink, Woese and Staley. Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 1998 48:223-235.

Keywords: genome sequencing, Antarctic bacteria, Antarctica, Marine Microbiology Initiative Program, subzero environments, genomics, marine bacteria

Project Description

The understanding of what features of microorganisms have led to their success in cold, subzero environments is currently unknown - however the genome of organisms that thrive in these environments promises to unravel information concerning their physiological adaptations, evolutionary history, and overall genome content useful in comparative genomic studies with organisms from lower latitudes. The genomes are presently in high draft format, have been automatically annotated using NCBI's PGAAP and were submitted to GenBank in March 2006 (PHSC20C1: AAOB00000000, Polaribacter irgensii 23-P: AAOG00000000).

Right: Scanning electron micrograph of marine actinobacterium, PHSC20C1.
Image source: Alison Murray and John McCormack.

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