title: Genome comparisons provide insights into the role of secondary metabolites in the pathogenic phase of the Photorhabdus life cycle.
abstract: Bacteria within the genus Photorhabdus maintain mutualistic symbioses with nematodes in complicated lifecycles that also involves insect pathogenic phases. Intriguingly, these bacteria are rich in biosynthetic gene clusters that produce compounds with diverse biological activities. As a basis to better understand the life cycles of Photorhabdus we sequenced the genomes of two recently discovered representative species and performed detailed genomic comparisons with five publically available genomes.
  
  
  
  Here we report the genomic details of two new reference Photorhabdus species. By then conducting genomic comparisons across the genus, we show that there are several highly conserved biosynthetic gene clusters. These clusters produce a range of bioactive small molecules that support the pathogenic phase of the integral relationship that Photorhabdus maintain with nematodes.
  
  
  
  Photorhabdus contain several genetic loci that allow them to become specialist insect pathogens by efficiently evading insect immune responses and killing the insect host.
authors.affiliation: Fachbereich Biowissenschaften, Merck Stiftungsprofessur für Molekulare Biotechnologie, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Nicholas J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Tobias
authors.affiliation: Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.|Fachbereich Biowissenschaften, Institut für Ökologie, Evolution und Diversität, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue-Str. 13, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Bagdevi
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mishra
authors.affiliation: Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.|Fachbereich Biowissenschaften, Institut für Ökologie, Evolution und Diversität, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue-Str. 13, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Deepak K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.affiliation: Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Rahul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre (BiK-F), Senckenberg Gesellschaft für Naturforschung, Senckenberganlage 25, 60325, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.|Fachbereich Biowissenschaften, Institut für Ökologie, Evolution und Diversität, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue-Str. 13, 60438, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Thines
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, at the Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia.
authors.forename: Timothy P
authors.initials: TP
authors.lastname: Stinear
authors.affiliation: Fachbereich Biowissenschaften, Merck Stiftungsprofessur für Molekulare Biotechnologie, Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. h.bode@bio.uni-frankfurt.de.|Buchmann Institute for Molecular Life Sciences (BMLS), Goethe Universität Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main, Germany. h.bode@bio.uni-frankfurt.de.
authors.forename: Helge B
authors.initials: HB
authors.lastname: Bode
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D001482:Base Composition; D001483:Base Sequence; D017124:Conserved Sequence; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D007313:Insecta / Q000469:parasitology; D005810:Multigene Family; D009348:Nematoda / Q000382:microbiology*; D020637:Photorhabdus / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D064210:Secondary Metabolism; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods*; D013559:Symbiosis
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins
keywords: Photorhabdus; Secondary metabolites; Sequencing; Symbiosis