title: Fuerstia marisgermanicaegen. nov., sp. nov., an Unusual Member of the Phylum Planctomycetes from the German Wadden Sea.
abstract: Members of the phylum Planctomycetes are ubiquitous bacteria that dwell in aquatic and terrestrial habitats. While planctomycetal species are important players in the global carbon and nitrogen cycle, this phylum is still undersampled and only few genome sequences are available. Here we describe strain NH11T, a novel planctomycete obtained from a crustacean shell (Wadden Sea, Germany). The phylogenetically closest related cultivated species isGimesia maris, sharing only 87% 16S rRNA sequence identity. Previous isolation attempts have mostly yielded members of the genusRhodopirellulafrom water of the German North Sea. On the other hand, only one axenic culture of the genusPirellulawas obtained from a crustacean thus far. However, the 16S rRNA gene sequence of strain NH11Tshares only 80% sequence identity with the closest relative of both genera,RhodopirellulaandPirellula. Thus, strain NH11Tis unique in terms of origin and phylogeny. While the pear to ovoid shaped cells of strain NH11Tare typical planctomycetal, light-, and electron microscopic observations point toward an unusual variation of cell division through budding: during the division process daughter- and mother cells are connected by an unseen thin tubular-like structure. Furthermore, the periplasmic space of strain NH11Twas unusually enlarged and differed from previously known planctomycetes. The complete genome of strain NH11T, with almost 9 Mb in size, is among the largest planctomycetal genomes sequenced thus far, but harbors only 6645 protein-coding genes. The acquisition of genomic components by horizontal gene transfer is indicated by the presence of numerous putative genomic islands. Strikingly, 45 "giant genes" were found within the genome of NH11T. Subsequent analysis of all available planctomycetal genomes revealed that Planctomycetes as such are especially rich in "giant genes". Furthermore, Multilocus Sequence Analysis (MLSA) tree reconstruction support the phylogenetic distance of strain NH11Tfrom other cultivated Planctomycetes of the same phylogenetic cluster. Thus, based on our findings, we propose to classify strain NH11TasFuerstia marisgermanicaegen. nov., sp. nov., with the type strain NH11T, within the phylum Planctomycetes.
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institut Deutsche Sammlung Von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Timo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kohn
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institut Deutsche Sammlung Von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Anja
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Heuer
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institut Deutsche Sammlung Von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Mareike
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jogler
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institut Deutsche Sammlung Von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vollmers
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institut Deutsche Sammlung Von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boedeker
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institut Deutsche Sammlung Von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Boyke
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bunk
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institut Deutsche Sammlung Von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rast
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institut Deutsche Sammlung Von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Borchert
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institut Deutsche Sammlung Von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Ines
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Glöckner
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institut Deutsche Sammlung Von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Heike M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Freese
authors.affiliation: School of Biology, Newcastle University Newcastle, UK.
authors.forename: Hans-Peter
authors.initials: HP
authors.lastname: Klenk
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institut Deutsche Sammlung Von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Jörg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Overmann
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institut Deutsche Sammlung Von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Anne-Kristin
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Kaster
authors.affiliation: Helmholtz Centre for Infectious Disease Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Manfred
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rohde
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institut Deutsche Sammlung Von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wiegand
authors.affiliation: Leibniz Institut Deutsche Sammlung Von Mikroorganismen und Zellkulturen Braunschweig, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Jogler
keywords: Fuerstia marisgermanicae; animal associated; cell division; giant genes; planctomycetes