Genome Sequences of Serratia Strains Revealed Common Genes in Both Serratomolides Gene Clusters

Abstract

Serratia strains are ubiquitous microorganisms with the ability to produce serratomolides, such as serrawettins. These extracellular lipopeptides are described as biocides against many bacteria and fungi and may have a nematicidal activity against phytopathogenic nematodes. Serrawettins W1 and W2 from different strains have different structures that might be correlated with distinct genomic organizations. This work used comparative genomics to determine the distribution and the organization of the serrawettins biosynthetic gene clusters in all the 84 publicly available genomes of the Serratia genus. The serrawettin W1 and W2 gene clusters’ organization was established using antiSMASH software and compared with single and short data previously described for YD25TSerratia. Here, the serrawettin W1 gene clusters’ organization is reported for the first time. The serrawettin W1 biosynthetic gene swrW was present in 17 Serratia genomes. Eighty different coding sequence (CDS) were assigned to the W1 gene cluster, 13 being common to all clusters. The serrawettin W2 swrA gene was present in 11 Serratia genomes. The W2 gene clusters included 68 CDS with 24 present in all the clusters. The genomic analysis showed the swrA gene constitutes five modules, four with three domains and one with four domains, while the swrW gene constitutes one module with four domains. This work identified four genes common to all serrawettin gene clusters, highlighting their essential potential in the serrawettins biosynthetic process.

The Role of Serratomolide-like Amino Lipids Produced by Bacteria of Genus Serratia in Nematicidal Activity

“…This work intends to better understand the role of serratomolides, produced by Serratia strains, in PWD and, especially, to assess if they are effective against PWN. Serrawettin genes have already been found in several Serratia strains [30,[32][33][34][35][38][39][40][41] and were present in seven of nineteen selected strains. The swrW gene was present in five Serratia strains and swrA gene was present in two Serratia strains.…”

“…Nineteen bacterial strains were screened by PCR for the presence of swrW and swrA genes since these genes are the key genes to all serrawettin biosynthetic gene clusters; however, each Serratia strain showed only one type when present [35]. The PCR products corresponding to the expected gene-fragments sizes were sequenced and compared with known serrawettin genes.…”

“…To partially amplify swrW and swrA genes using PCR, new specific primers were designed (summarized in Tables S1 and S2). Eighty-five Serratia genomes available on NCBI were individually queried in the AntiSMASH database [42] to identify all secondary metabolite gene clusters (results published by authors [35]). Some of those secondary metabolite gene clusters presented DNA sequences similar to serrawettins' genes: seventeen genomes with the swrW gene cluster and eleven with the swrA gene cluster [35].…”

“…Biosynthesis is dependent on PPTase [33] and a hybrid polyketide synthase (PKS-NRPS) gene cluster was found to be involved in this process in S. surfactantfaciens YD25 [34]. The genome analysis of 84 publicly available genomes of the genus Serratia showed four genes common to all serrawettin gene clusters encoding a CTP (cytidine triphosphate) synthase, glyoxalase/bleomycin resistance protein/dioxygenase, LrgA family protein, and LrgB family protein, highlighting their essential potential in the serrawettins biosynthetic process [35].…”

Metabolic Profiling of Rhizobacteria Serratia plymuthica and Bacillus subtilis Revealed Intra- and Interspecific Differences and Elicitation of Plipastatins and Short Peptides Due to Co-cultivation

“…The production of the antimicrobial biosurfactant lipopeptide Serratomolide isomers has so far been found in the genus Serratia, however, only in two species S. marcescens and S. surfactantfaciens and not yet in S. plymuthica (Wassermann et al, 1961;Clements et al, 2019). Recent genome comparison via antiSMASH software revealed that S. plymuthica AS9 carries the Serratomolide swrW gene (Marques-Pereira et al, 2020). Our findings now demonstrate the ability of S. plymuthica AS9 to produce Serratomolide biosurfactants, although further profound structural characterization of individual isomers is needed to give an insight into the full lipopeptide profile.…”