Species features and genomic characterization of Sphingobium yanoikuyae JS1018

Sphingobium yanoikuyae JS1018 is a novel strain of bacteria with one of the highest plant phytoalexin stilbenes degradation rates in the peanut root microbiome. Prior studies have determined the initial catabolic pathways and identified the CCO (carotenoid cleavage oxygenase) genes. We propose that peanut plants have evolved an "arms race mechanism" to protect themselves from bacterial and fungal invasion. This research serves to further characterize this bacterial strain, both in physical characteristics and in a full genome sequence. The physical characteristics tested, such as carbon source, gram stain, cell morphology, and NaCl tolerance were added to the previous characterization to form a full strain characterization. The test indicated that galactose, dextrose, maltose, and arabinose, when added as the sole carbon source in the medium, significantly stimulated the growth of JS1018, while lactose, benzoic acid, and soluble starch only increased minor growth of this strain. Xylose could not be used by the species. It is a Gram-negative species based on the straining text. The NaCl tolerance test showed that this strain could tolerate salinity from 1.5 to 8% as NaCl, whereas 10-25% of salinity completely inhibited its growth. The genome sequence is ongoing, but it has revealed a total genome size of 5,402,660 bp, a CG content of 64.06% and 4,767 CDS features. Of those features, 1,262 are hypothetical proteins that will be compared to a similar strain to attempt to determine function through the BRIG software.