Cedecea lapagei strain:SLM1 Genome sequencing and assembly. Cedecea lapagei strain:SLM1

Camel crickets (Rhaphidophoridae) are, if not everywhere, at least quite common in many parts of the United States. The majority of the reports of camel crickets in homes across North America are not native camel crickets but instead an introduced camel cricket species from temperate Asia, which was known to be in the United States but not to be in homes (Diestrammena asynamora). We carried out several steps to investigate the usefulness of camel cricket gut microbes. We were particularly interested in bacteria able to grow on and degrade on the pulping waste product black liquor. We surface sterilized camel crickets, then homogenized the crickets and plated the homogenate on agar plates that contained dilute black liquor (so as to select for those bacteria able to live in black liquor). We found isolates able to grow on all of the substrates considered. We identified the isolates and then focused in on the species that appeared best able to grow in black liquor, Cedecea lapagei. We sequenced the entire genome of Cedecea lapagei to understand how it could be degrading black liquor and its constituents.