Tenacibaculum maritimum CRISPR loci analysis and evaluation of isolate spoligotyping

Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeat/CRISPR-Associated Protein and Its Utility All at Sea: Status, Challenges, and Prospects

Initially discovered over 35 years ago in the bacterium Escherichia coli as a defense system against invasion of viral (or other exogenous) DNA into the genome, CRISPR/Cas has ushered in a new era of functional genetics and served as a versatile genetic tool in all branches of life science. CRISPR/Cas has revolutionized the methodology of gene knockout with simplicity and rapidity, but it is also powerful for gene knock-in and gene modification. In the field of marine biology and ecology, this tool has been instrumental in the functional characterization of 'dark' genes and the documentation of the functional differentiation of gene paralogs. Powerful as it is, challenges exist that have hindered the advances in functional genetics in some important lineages. This review examines the status of applications of CRISPR/Cas in marine research and assesses the prospect of quickly expanding the deployment of this powerful tool to address the myriad fundamental marine biology and biological oceanography questions.

Comparative genomic assessment of members of genus Tenacibaculum: an exploratory study

Tenacibaculosis is an ulcerative skin disorder that affects finfish. It is caused by members of the genus Tenacibaculum, resulting in eccentric behavioural changes, including anorexia, lethargy, and abnormal swimming patterns that often result in mortality. Currently, species suspected of causing fish mortality include T. ovolyticum, T. gallaicum, T. discolor, T. finnmarkense, T. mesophilum, T. soleae, T. dicentrarchi, and T. maritimum. However, pathogenic members and the mechanisms involved in disease causation, progression, and transmission are limited due to the inadequate sequencing efforts in the past decade. In this study, we use a comparative genomics approach to investigate the characteristic features of 26 publicly available genomes of Tenacibaculum and report our observations. We propose the reclassification of "T. litoreum HSC 22" to the singaporense species and assignment of "T. sp. 4G03" to the species discolor (species with quotation marks have not been appropriately named). We also report the co-occurrence of several antimicrobial resistance/virulence genes and genes private to a few members. Finally, we mine several non-B DNA forming regions, operons, tandem repeats, high-confidence putative effector proteins, and sortase that might play a pivotal role in bacterial evolution, transcription, and pathogenesis.