Genome mining of the rhizosphere bacterium Pseudomonas sp. SHC52

Soil ecosystems represent an enormous untapped resource for discovering novel microorganisms, traits and bioactive genes. Natural disease suppressive soils are particularly interesting as they have a relatively higher abundance of beneficial microorganisms that guard plants against infections by soil-borne pathogens. By using both culture-independent and culture-dependent approaches, we recently discovered a novel group of Pseudomonas species in the rhizosphere of sugar beet seedlings grown in a soil that is suppressive to the fungal pathogen Rhizoctonia solani. Representative strain Pseudomonas sp. SHC52 was shown to inhibit hyphal growth of R. solani and various other fungal and oomycete pathogens. Sequencing of Pseudomonas sp. SH-C52 revealed a genome size of 6.7 Mb with approximately 4% of the genome dedicated to secondary metabolism. In detail studies of the genome, will help in determining the genetic factors involved in the activity of this strain.