Query: NC_007576:471500 Lactobacillus sakei subsp. sakei 23K, complete genome
Lineage: Lactobacillus sakei; Lactobacillus; Lactobacillaceae; Lactobacillales; Firmicutes; Bacteria
General Information: This strain (23K) was originally isolated from a French sausage. They are commonly found in the oral, vaginal, and intestinal regions of many animals. They are important industrial microbes that contribute to the production of cheese, yogurt, and other products such as fermented milks, all stemming from the production of lactic acid, which inhibits the growth of other organisms as well as lowering the pH of the food product. Industrial production requires the use of starter cultures, which are carefully cultivated, created, and maintained, which produce specific end products during fermentation that impart flavor to the final product, as well as contributing important metabolic reactions, such as the breakdown of milk proteins during cheese production. The end product of fermentation, lactic acid, is also being used as a starter molecule for complex organic molecule syntheses. Lactobacillus sakei is the predominant lactic acid bacteria found on fresh meat. This organism is used as a starter in the production of fermented meat products, and plays a major role in preserving meat products by inhibiting the growth of other bacteria.
Subject: NC_003030:1097625 Clostridium acetobutylicum ATCC 824, complete genome
Lineage: Clostridium acetobutylicum; Clostridium; Clostridiaceae; Clostridiales; Firmicutes; Bacteria
General Information: This strain was isolated in 1924 from garden soil in Connecticut, USA, by E. Wyer and L. Rettger. It is one of the best studied solventogenic clostridia. Solvent-producing bacterium. This genus comprises about 150 metabolically diverse species of anaerobes that are ubiquitous in virtually all anoxic habitats where organic compounds are present, including soils, aquatic sediments and the intestinal tracts of animals and humans. This shape is attributed to the presence of endospores that develop under conditions unfavorable for vegetative growth and distend single cells terminally or sub-terminally. Spores germinate under conditions favorable for vegetative growth, such as anaerobiosis and presence of organic substrates. It is believed that present day Mollicutes (Eubacteria) have evolved regressively (i.e., by genome reduction) from gram-positive clostridia-like ancestors with a low GC content in DNA. This organism is a benign saccharolytic and proteolytic soil bacterium capable of producing a number of organic solvents (solventogenic bacterium) through fermentation of various organic compounds. acetobutyricum were isolated by Chaim Weizman during the World War I and used to develop industrial starch-based acetone, butanol and ethanol fermentation processes.