Examine the Correlation between Heat Shock Protein IbpA and Heat Tolerance in Cronobacter sakazakii / 生物医学与环境科学（英文）

We used a proteomic approach to identify IbpA in Cronobacter sakazakii (C. sakazaki), which is related to heat tolerance in this strain. The abundance of IbpA in C. sakazakii strains strongly increased after heat shock. C. sakazakii CMCC 45402 ibpA deletion mutants were successfully constructed. The C. sakazakii CMCC 45402 ΔibpA and wild-type strains could not be distinguished based on colony morphology on LB agar plates or biochemical assays. The growth of the C. sakazakii CMCC 45402 ΔibpA mutant in heat shock conditions was indistinguishable from that of the isogenic wild-type, but showed greater heat resistance than E. coli O157:H7 strain CMCC 44828. This study suggests that the absence of a single ibpA gene has no obvious effect on the phenotype or heat resistance of the strain C. sakazakii CMCC 45402.

Genomic Diversity and Evolution of Bacillus subtilis / 生物医学与环境科学（英文）

Bacillus subtilis is the focus of both academic and industrial research. Previous studies have reported a number of sequence variations in different B. subtilis strains. To uncover the genetic variation and evolutionary pressure in B. subtilis strains, we performed whole genome sequencing of two B. subtilis isolates, KM and CGMCC63528. Comparative genomic analyses of these two strains with other B. subtilis strains identified high sequence variations including large insertions, deletions and SNPs. Most SNPs in genes were synonymous and the average frequency of synonymous mutations was significantly higher than that of the non-synonymous mutations. Pan-genome analysis of B. subtilis strains showed that the core genome had lower dN/dS values than the accessory genome. Whole genome comparisons of these two isolates with other B. subtilis strains showed that strains in different subspecies have similar dN/dS values. Nucleotide diversity analysis showed that spizizenii subspecies have higher nucleotide diversity than subtilis subspecies. Our results indicate that genes in B. subtilis strains are under high purifying selection pressure. The evolutionary pressure in different subspecies of B. subtilis is complex.