Pre_GI: SWBIT SVG BLASTP

Query: NC_015662:110950 Buchnera aphidicola (Cinara tujafilina) chromosome, complete

Lineage: Buchnera aphidicola; Buchnera; Enterobacteriaceae; Enterobacteriales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria

General Information: It is believed that the Buchnera provide the essential nutrients the host lacks. Besides a nutritional co-dependence, due to a co-existence of millions of years, Buchnera have lost the ability to produce cell surface components such as lipopolysaccharides. This makes for an obligate endosymbiont relationship between host and Buchnera. Buchnera are prokaryotic cells which belong to the gamma-Proteobacteria, closely related to the Enterobacteriaceae family. Phylogenetic studies using 16S rRNA indicate that the symbiotic relationship was established around 200-250 million years ago. Since Buchnera are closely related to Escherichia coli and Haemophilus influenzae, comparative genomic studies can shed light on the evolutionary mechanisms of intracellular endosymbiosis as well as the different underlying molecular basis between organisms with parasitic behavior and symbionts.

Subject: NC_007204:696972 Psychrobacter arcticus 273-4, complete genome

Lineage: Psychrobacter arcticus; Psychrobacter; Moraxellaceae; Pseudomonadales; Proteobacteria; Bacteria

General Information: This strain is part of an analysis of the growth of organisms at and their adaption to low temperature, a study that is being conducted by Michigan State University as a member of NASA's Astrobiology Institute. Insight into how these organisms grow and adapt to life in low temperature environments could aid in understanding transport of microbes through space, either as a contaminant on human spacecraft, or as a passenger on an asteroid or comet.