Query: NC_018870:1417851 Thermacetogenium phaeum DSM 12270 chromosome, complete genome
Lineage: Thermacetogenium phaeum; Thermacetogenium; Thermoanaerobacteraceae; Thermoanaerobacterales; Firmicutes; Bacteria
General Information: Nitrogen fixation. Thermophilic strictly anaerobic bacterium oxidizing acetate to CO2 in syntrophic association with a methanogenic partner. Capable of growing with various substrates such as alcohols and methylated nitrogen compounds, and to reduce sulfate in the presence of acetate. Isolated from sludge of an anaerobic digester run at 58 degrees C. Thermacetogenium phaeum is a strictly anaerobic, homoacetogenic bacterium. It is exceptional because it can use the homoacetogenic Wood-Ljungdahl (CO- dehydrogenase) pathway both for acetate formation and acetate oxidation. Acetate oxidation is possible only in syntrophic cooperation with a methanogenic partner which maintains a low hydrogen and/or formate concentration in the coculture. With this, the bacterium operates close to the thermodynamic equilibrium of substrate conversion, similar to other syntrophically fermenting bacteria such as Syntrophomonas wolfei the genomes of which have been sequenced as well in the recent past.
Subject: NC_004557:1 Clostridium tetani E88, complete genome
Lineage: Clostridium tetani; Clostridium; Clostridiaceae; Clostridiales; Firmicutes; Bacteria
General Information: This strain is a virulent nonsporulating variant of strain Massachusetts used in vaccine production. Causes tetanus. 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. Known opportunistic toxin-producing pathogens in animals and humans. Some species are capable of producing organic solvents (acetone, ethanol, etc,), molecular hydrogen and other useful compounds. This organism causes tetanus (lockjaw) in humans. At the tissue level, the bacterium then releases an exotoxin called tetanospasmin that causes certain nervous system irregularities by means of retrograde tramsmission through neurons to the brain. If nervous impulses cannot be checked by normal inhibitory mechanisms, it produces the generalized muscular spasms characteristic of tetanus.