Draft Genome Sequence of a Terrestrial Planctomycete, Singulisphaera sp. Strain GP187, Isolated from Forest Soil

Here, we present the draft genome sequence of a novel species of the genus Singulisphaera (phylum Planctomycetes, family Isosphaeraceae) isolated from soil. Singulisphaera sp. strain GP187 has a relatively large mobilome and numerous novel genes that may contribute to the production of bioactive molecules.

bacterial phylum in global soil samples (1), yet this phylum remains underrepresented in axenic cultures, and a large majority of these cultures are derived from aqueous environments (2). Aqueous planctomycetes are hypothesized to have evolved from terrestrial species (3).
Singulisphaera sp. strain GP187 was isolated on 3 June 2014 from the Harvard Forest, a temperate forest ecosystem in Petersham, MA (42.54°N, 272.18°W). Organic horizon soil was pretreated with 6% yeast extract plus 0.05% SDS (4), plated onto oatmeal medium, and incubated aerobically at 20°C, with colonies appearing after 8 days. GP187 was the only Planctomycetes strain of the hundreds of isolates from this site (5) and thus was subjected to whole-genome sequencing.
Phylogenetically, the closest species to GP187 is the aquatic Singulisphaera acidiphila DSM 18658 (13). These strains share 98.84% homology for 16S rRNA genes (average as determined by searching public RNA isolates with IMG BLAST) and 86.7% whole-genome average nucleotide identity (ANI) (IMG pairwise ANI). Isosphaeraceae genome sequences characteristically carry large plasmids; GP187 harbors a putative plasmid of 63.8 kb (G1C content, 61.8%; a lower G1C content is typical of plasmids [14]). The subtilisin gene open reading frame spans, without gaps, the ends of contig5 and shares 82% homology with the plasmid-encoded subtilisin gene of S. acidiphila DSM 18658, suggesting that contig5 is a circular plasmid.
This genome sequence will contribute to our understanding of terrestrial species of Planctomycetes, a phylum abundant in soil but underrepresented in isolate genome analysis. Analysis of this genome sequence may elucidate its ecological role in terrestrial ecosystems, identify evolutionary relationships between terrestrial and aquatic Singulisphaera species, and contribute to the discovery of novel secondary metabolites.
Data availability. This whole-genome sequence was deposited at DDBJ/EMBL/ GenBank under the accession number NZ_FSRB00000000.1. The raw data were deposited in the JGI GOLD under the project number Gp0151081 and in the Sequence Read Archive under the accession number SRX2158412. The JGI annotation is found at https:// img.jgi.doe.gov/cgi-bin/m/main.cgi?section=TaxonDetail&page=taxonDetail&taxon_oid= 2695420965#.