Sequence of a thermophilic and phytosterols degrading isolate of the genus Mycobacterium

Mycobacterium hassiacum is one of the few thermophilic isolates of the genus Mycobacteriu, with optimum growth temperatures of 55ºC. As many of the members of this genus M hassiacum is able to use sterols as a source of carbon and energy, including sterols of plant origin. Also, the strain seems to encode several glycosilases. To get insight into the metabolic pathways involved in phytosterol degradation and in sugar metabolism a whole genome sequencing and annotation program gas carried out. The genome is made of a single circular chromosome of 5,268,611 bp, with a G+C content similar to other members of the genus (69.28%) and around 5000 coding sequences.