Query: NC_003454:249304 Fusobacterium nucleatum subsp. nucleatum ATCC 25586, complete Lineage: Fusobacterium nucleatum; Fusobacterium; Fusobacteriaceae; Fusobacteriales; Fusobacteria; Bacteria General Information: Normal oral and gastrointestinal bacterium. This genus contains mostly obligately anaerobic bacilli. Many of the isolates are spindle-shaped, or fusiform. This organism belongs to the normal microflora of the human oral and gastrointestinal tracts. It is a very long and slender spindle-shaped bacillus with sharply pointed ends that is characterized by the ability to invade soft tissues. It acts as a bridge between early and late colonizers of the tooth surface, and exerts synergism with other bacteria in mixed infections. It is most frequently associated with periodontal diseases, as well as with some invasive human infections of the head and neck, chest, lung, liver and abdomen, and some anginas. One of the major amino acid and sugar fermentation pathways in Fusobacterium nucleatum produces butyric and acetic acids.
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General Information: This red-pigmented organism's name means "strange berry that withstands radiation", marking the fact that this organism is one of the most radiation-resistant known. It can tolerate radiation levels at 1000 times the levels that would kill a human and it was originally isolated in 1956 from a can of meat that had been irradiated with X-rays. The resistance to radiation may reflect its resistance to dessication, which also causes DNA damage. This organism may be of use in cleaning up toxic metals found at nuclear weapons production sites due to the radiation resistance. This bacterium is also a highly efficient transformer, and can readily take up exogenous DNA from the environment, which may also aid DNA repair. This organism carries multiple copies of many DNA repair genes, suggesting a robust system for dealing with DNA damage. The recombination system may rely on multiple copies of various repeat elements found throughout the genome.