Revealing the genomic differences between two subgroups in Lactobacillus gasseri

Ipputa Tada; Yasuhiro Tanizawa; Akihito Endo; Masanori Tohno; Masanori Arita

doi:10.12938/bmfh.17-006

Revealing the genomic differences between two subgroups in Lactobacillus gasseri

Biosci Microbiota Food Health. 2017;36(4):155-159. doi: 10.12938/bmfh.17-006. Epub 2017 Aug 1.

Authors

Ipputa Tada¹, Yasuhiro Tanizawa², Akihito Endo³, Masanori Tohno⁴, Masanori Arita^{2

5}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Genetics, School of Life Science, The Graduate University of Advanced Studies, Mishima, Shizuoka 411-8540, Japan.
² Center for Information Biology, National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Shizuoka 411-8540, Japan.
³ Department of Food and Cosmetic Science, Faculty of Bioindustry, Tokyo University of Agriculture, Abashiri, Hokkaido 099-2493, Japan.
⁴ National Agriculture and Food Research Organization, National Institute of Livestock and Grassland Science, Tochigi 329-2793, Japan.
⁵ RIKEN Center for Sustainable Resource Science, Yokohama, Kanagawa 230-0045, Japan.

Abstract

Being an autochthonous species in humans, Lactobacillus gasseri is widely used as a probiotic for fermented products. We thoroughly compared the gene contents of 75 L. gasseri genomes and identified two intraspecific groups by the average nucleotide identity (ANI) threshold of 94%. Group I, with 48 strains, possessed 53 group-specific genes including the gassericin T cluster (9 genes) and N-acyl homoserine lactone lactonase. Group II, with 27 strains, including the type strain ATCC 33323, possessed group-specific genes with plasmid- or phage-related annotations. The genomic differences provide evidences for demarcating a new probiotic group within L. gasseri.

Keywords: Lactobacillus gasseri; comparative genomics; gassericin T; quorum sensing.