Biodegradation of cyanide to ammonia and carbon dioxide by an industrially valuable enzyme from the newly isolated Enterobacter zs

Complete genome sequencing of Enterobacter ludwigii strain T977 revealed its great ability for starch degradation of Nicotiana tabacum L. Yunyan 97

Enterobacter ludwigii has been proven by numerous studies to be an effective plant growth promoter. Enterobacter ludwigii T977 was isolated from leaves of Nicotiana tabacum L. Yunyan 97 which showing high starch degrading ability. The optimal fermentation carbon source of strain T977 was starch, with optimal starch concentration as 2.5 g/L, and the most suitable fermentation nitrogen source for the strain T977 was ammonium acetate, with optimal concentration as 0.25 g/L. The spaying treatment of strain T977 could reduce the starch content of upper leaves from 3.77% to 1.43%, the total sugar and reducing sugar decreased slightly, the starch content of middle leaves decreased from 5.63% to 3.18%, the content of total sugar and reducing sugar increased in middle leaves, and the other chemical components were in the appropriate range. Here, we reported 4.77 MB whole genome of a starch-degrading E. ludwigii T977 that encodes 4501 proteins, 11 α-amylases in GH13 family were identified, and the amylase (GM000159) with signal peptide may play important role in degradation of starch in tobacco leaves. Our study may provide an effective microbiological mean for reducing starch content in tobacco leaves.

Gene sdaB Is Involved in the Nematocidal Activity of Enterobacter ludwigii AA4 Against the Pine Wood Nematode Bursaphelenchus xylophilus

Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, a plant parasitic nematode, is the causal agent of pine wilt, a devastating forest tree disease. Essentially, no efficient methods for controlling B. xylophilus and pine wilt disease have yet been developed. Enterobacter ludwigii AA4, isolated from the root of maize, has powerful nematocidal activity against B. xylophilus in a new in vitro dye exclusion test. The corrected mortality of the B. xylophilus treated by E. ludwigii AA4 or its cell extract reached 98.3 and 98.6%, respectively. Morphological changes in B. xylophilus treated with a cell extract from strain AA4 suggested that the death of B. xylophilus might be caused by an increased number of vacuoles in non-apoptotic cell death and the damage to tissues of the nematodes. In a greenhouse test, the disease index of the seedlings of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) treated with the cells of strain AA4 plus B. xylophilus or those treated by AA4 cell extract plus B. xylophilus was 38.2 and 30.3, respectively, was significantly lower than 92.5 in the control plants treated with distilled water and B. xylophilus. We created a sdaB gene knockout in strain AA4 by deleting the gene that was putatively encoding the beta-subunit of L-serine dehydratase through Red homologous recombination. The nematocidal and disease-suppressing activities of the knockout strain were remarkably impaired. Finally, we revealed a robust colonization of P. sylvestris seedling needles by E. ludwigii AA4, which is supposed to contribute to the disease-controlling efficacy of strain AA4. Therefore, E. ludwigii AA4 has significant potential to serve as an agent for the biological control of pine wilt disease caused by B. xylophilus.