Microbial Genome Sequencing: The Complete Genome Sequence of Teredinibacter Turnerae T7902T (g-proteobacterium), The Cultivable Intracellular Endosymbiont of Wood-Boring Marine Mo

虽然大多数传染性细菌被认为是有害的（致病的），但有些可能是有益的，甚至是宿主生存所必需的（共生的）。这就是teredinibacterium turnerae的情况，这是一种共生细菌，可以感染海洋船虫鳃中的一个特殊器官。船虫是一种分布广泛且具有高度破坏性的蠕虫状木蛀蛤家族的成员，是唯一一种以木材为唯一食物来源生存和生长的海洋动物。由于这种不寻常的饮食，船虫每年对船舶、捕鱼设备和海洋结构造成的损失估计高达10亿美元，但同时也为漂流木（一种航行危险）的降解和其成分返回食物网提供了主要途径。这里研究的共生体，T. turnerae，对船虫的生存至关重要，它提供了降解木材所需的酶，以补充它们缺乏氮的饮食。提出的研究目的是测序全基因组的共生体T. turn。这将为区分这些有益的感染因子与病原体和非感染性细菌的遗传差异提供重要的见解，并将提高对这些细菌（以及类似的人类和动物病原体）如何进化以逃避宿主免疫系统并适应细胞内环境的理解。这一序列还将揭示T. turn nerae用于降解植物多糖的全套水解酶，其中一些酶可能在从农业和生活废物中制造生物燃料、洗衣洗涤剂以及食品和纺织品加工中具有商业价值。最后，由于船虫不能离开它们的共生体而生存，了解与共生体感染有关的基因可能有助于控制船虫的繁殖和它们造成的经济损失。

While most infectious bacteria are considered to be harmful (pathogenic), some may be beneficial or even essential for host survival (symbiotic). Such is the case with Teredinibacter turnerae, a symbiotic bacterium that infects a specialized organ in the gills of marine shipworms. Shipworms are members of a widespread and highly destructive family of worm-like, wood boring clams, and are the only marine animals known that survive and grow with wood as their sole food source. As a result of this unusual diet, shipworms cause an estimated one billion dollars in damage to ships, fishing equipment and marine structures annually but also provide the principle means by which driftwood (a navigational hazard) is degraded and its components are returned to the food web. The symbiont examined here, T. turnerae, is essential to shipworm survival, providing enzymes needed to degrade wood to supplement their nitrogen-poor diet. The objective of the proposed research is to sequence the complete genome of the symbiont T. turnerae. This will provide important insights into the genetic differences that distinguish these beneficial infectious agents from pathogens and non-infectious bacteria and will improve understanding of the ways in which these bacteria (and similar human and animal pathogens) have evolved to evade the host immune system and to accommodate to the intracellular environment. This sequence will also reveal the complete suite of hydrolytic enzymes used by T. turnerae to degrade plant polysaccharides, some of which may have commercial value in manufacture of biofuels from agricultural and domestic waste, in laundry detergents, and in processing of foods and textiles. Finally, because shipworms cannot survive without their symbionts, knowledge of the genes involved in symbiotic infection may facilitate efforts to control shipworm proliferation and the economic damage they cause.