Pangenome of Sulfate Reducing Bacteria to Reveal Insights into Biofilm Forming Gene Families

Author: Shailabh Rauniyar, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering

Mentor: Dr. Rajesh Sani, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering and Department of Chemistry, Biology, and Health Sciences.

Pangenome is the union of core and dispensable genomes (describing the totality of taxa at the level of sequence datasets) where 90-99% genes are shared by core genome and the dispensable genome consists of partially shared and strain-specific genes. Pangenomics is a computational strategy which involves the comparison of hundreds of genomes to reveal genomic diversity in a group of interest. The cluster of genes that encode similar polypeptides or proteins, which collectively share a generalized function and are often located within a few thousand base pairs of each other, can be generated. The pangenome of Sulfate Reducing Bacteria (SRB) involved 114 curated genomes from NCBI an JGI. Partitioned PanGenome Graph Of Linked Neighbors (PPanGGOLiN) workflow was used for the representation of the gene repertoire variation as a graph, where each node and edges represented a family of homologous genes and a relation of genetic contiguity respectively. The genomes were segregated into persistent, cloud, and one or several shell partitions. Presence/Absence matrix, partitioned pangenome graph and frequency distribution data was generated to demonstrate the related family of biofilm forming genes across SRB community. This is the first attempt to construct a SRB pangenome where the gene level information could provide novel insights into biofilm inhibition strategy to combat metal corrosion.