Project description:Understanding natural defence mechanisms against parasites can be a valuable tool for the development of innovative therapies. In this study, we investigated the interplay between the gill mucus metabolome and microbiome of Chaetodon lunulatus, a butterflyfish known to avoid gill monogeneans whilst living amongst closely related parasitized species. In an attempt to identify metabolites and OTUs potentially involved in parasite defence mechanisms, we studied the metabolome (LC-MS/MS) and microbiome of several sympatric butterflyfish species, including the only non-parasitized species C. lunulatus. After observing significant differences between the metabolome and microbiome of parasitized versus non-parasitized fish (PCoA, ANOSIM), we obtained the discriminant metabolites and OTUs using a supervised analysis. Some of the most important discriminant metabolites were identified as peptides, and three new β-subunit haemoblogin-derived peptides from C. lunulatus (CLHbβ-1, CLHbβ-2 and CLHbβ-3) were purified, characterised and synthesised. We also identified specific bacterial families and OTUs typical from low-oxygen habitats in C. lunulatus gill mucus. By using a correlation network between the two datasets, we found a Fusobacteriaceae strain exclusively present in C. lunulatus highly correlated to the peptides. Finally, we discuss the possible involvement of these peptides and Fusobacteriaceae in monogenean avoidance by this fish species.
Project description:Saccharomonospora azurea Runmao et al. 1987 is a member of the genus Saccharomonospora, which is in the family Pseudonocardiaceae and thus far poorly characterized genomically. Members of the genus Saccharomonospora are of interest because they originate from diverse habitats, such as leaf litter, manure, compost, the surface of peat, and moist and over-heated grain, and may play a role in the primary degradation of plant material by attacking hemicellulose. Next to S. viridis, S. azurea is only the second member in the genus Saccharomonospora for which a completely sequenced type strain genome will be published. Here we describe the features of this organism, together with the complete genome sequence with project status 'Improved high quality draft', and the annotation. The 4,763,832 bp long chromosome with its 4,472 protein-coding and 58 RNA genes was sequenced as part of the DOE funded Community Sequencing Program (CSP) 2010 at the Joint Genome Institute (JGI).