Query: NC_002488:2502000 Xylella fastidiosa 9a5c, complete genome
Lineage: Xylella fastidiosa; Xylella; Xanthomonadaceae; Xanthomonadales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria
General Information: This strain was derived from a pathogenic strain (8.1b) isolated in 1992 in France that had come from infected twigs derived from the sweet orange strain Valencia in Brazil in the same year. This organism was first identified in 1993 as the causal agent of citrus variegated chlorosis, a disease that affects varieties of sweet oranges. Other strains of this species cause a range of diseases in mulberry, pear, almond, elm, sycamore, oak, maple, pecan and coffee which collectively result in multimillion dollar devastation of economically important plants. Xylella fastidiosa is similar to Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris in that it produces a wide variety of pathogenic factors for colonization in a host-specific manner including a large number of fimbrial and afimbrial adhesins for attachment. It does not contain a type III secretion system, but possesses genes for a type II secretion system for export of exoenzymes that degrade the plant cell wall and allow the bacterium to colonize the plant xylem.
Subject: NC_013418:459650 Blattabacterium sp. (Periplaneta americana) str. BPLAN, complete
Lineage: Blattabacterium; Blattabacterium; Blattabacteriaceae; Flavobacteriales; Bacteroidetes; Bacteria
General Information: This organism is the endosymbiont of the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana. It is a Gram-negative maternally inherited bacteria which lives in specialized cells in the host's abdominal fat body. Phylogenetic analyses for the Blattabacterium-cockroach symbiosis supports the hypothesis of co-evolution between symbionts and hosts dating back to more than 140 million years ago. Cockroaches are omnivorous insects, often subsisting on a nitrogen-poor diet, and Blattabacterium have been hypothesized to participate in uric acid degradation, nitrogen assimilation, and nutrient provisioning. Genome sequencing and metabolic reconstruction shows that Blattabacterium can recycle nitrogen from urea and ammonia, which are uric acid degradation products, into glutamate, using urease and glutamate dehydrogenase, and thus would be able to provide its host with some essential amino acids, vitamins and cofactors. The bacterium relies on asparagine and glutamine supplied by the host; it may be able to make proline from arginine via the urea cycle.