Abstract
Cyanobacteria are oxygenic photosynthetic organisms which are found across many ecosystems, including freshwater and marine habitats. They are also found on natural and artificial surfaces. In this study, we cultured and characterise a novel cyanobacterium from the surfaces of foam microplastics of tropical coastal waters. We study the chemical ecology of this cyanobacterium, Sphaerothrix gracilis gen. et sp. nov., together with its potential to form harmful cyanobacterial blooms and bioremediation applications to combat plastic pollution. The genome of S. gracilis spanned 6.7 Mbp, with identification of antibiotic resistance, nitrogen-fixation, plastic-degrading and genes involved in harmful metabolite production. The transport of potentially harmful S. gracilis in coastal environments could have severe implications on human health and food security, especially in times of a cyanobacterial bloom.
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Data availability
The draft genome sequence of Sphaerothrix gracilis was deposited in Genbank, NCBI Whole Genome Shotgun project: SUB13190905, under BioProject PRJNA964492 and BioSample accession number SAMN34473616.
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Acknowledgements
This work was partially supported by funds awarded to Dr Sandric Leong through the National University of Singapore, the National Conservation Trust Fund for Natural Resources (NCTF) LPS2203 awarded to Dr Teruaki Yoshida and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant # 21K1094 awarded to Dr Victor Kuwahara. The help from members of Team HABs, Nikon Imaging Center, Singapore Bioimaging Consortium, St. John’s Island National Marine Laboratory, Soka University, Japan and University Malaysia Sabah also greatly supported this project.
Funding
This work was partially supported by funds awarded to Dr Sandric Leong through the National University of Singapore, the National Conservation Trust Fund for Natural Resources (NCTF) LPS2203 awarded to Dr Teruaki Yoshida and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant # 21K1094 awarded to Dr Victor Kuwahara.
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All authors contributed to this work equally. Cyanobacteria samples were obtained and processed by E.C. Methodology, analysis and investigation was carried out by all authors. Review and editing was conducted by E. C and S.L. Supervision was carried out by V. K., T. Y. and S. L.
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Curren, E., Kuwahara, V.S., Yoshida, T. et al. Draft genome of novel cyanobacteria Sphaerothrix Gracilis isolated from coastal microplastics reveal insights to chemical ecology, bloom and plastic-utilization potential. Funct Integr Genomics 24, 46 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10142-024-01328-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10142-024-01328-9