Synechococcus WH8101 Genome Sequencing

Synechococcus spp. are unicellular cyanobacteria that are globally distributed and are responsible for up to 16% of net primary production in the ocean. Significant proportions of marine Synechococcus communities can be lysed daily by viruses; nevertheless, studies have shown that Synechococcus can rapidly become resistant to co-occurring viruses. The goal of this project was to identify the genetic determinants that lead to viral-resistance in Synechococcus sp. WH8101. To obtain resistant isolates, long-term laboratory pairwise coevolution experiments were conducted using Synechococcus sp. WH8101 and three T4-like myoviruses (RIM8, RIM12, and RIM44). Here, the genome of the ancestral Synechococcus sp. WH8101 isolate was sequenced and assembled. This genome sequence will be used as a reference to identify genetic changes that occurred during the course of the coevolution experiments. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (OCE-1332782 and OIA-1736030)