Query: NC_018870:81396 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_002973:72328 Listeria monocytogenes str. 4b F2365, complete genome
Lineage: Listeria monocytogenes; Listeria; Listeriaceae; Bacillales; Firmicutes; Bacteria
General Information: This strain was isolated in 1985 in California, USA, during an outbreak of listeriosis among patients with AIDS. The strain is of serotype 4b and was isolated from a cheese product that caused the outbreak. This organism, which causes listeriosis, is one of the leading causes of death from food-borne pathogens especially in pregnant women, newborns, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals. It is found in environments such as decaying vegetable matter, sewage, water, and soil, and it can survive extremes of both temperatures (1-45 degrees C) and salt concentration marking it as an extremely dangerous food-born pathogen, especially on food that is not reheated. This organism is enteroinvasive, and utilizes an actin-based motility system by using a surface protein, ActA, that promotes actin polymerization, to spread intercellularly using the polymerized cytoskeletal protein as a "motor". There are 13 serovars associated with Listeria monocytogenes, and the serovar 4b strains are more commonly associated with invasive disease.