Prediction of genes associated with plant growth promotion in Bacillus spp. genomes

CORTESE, ILIANA JULIETA; ONETTO, ANDREA LILIANA; BICH, GUSTAVO ANGEL; CASTRILLO, MARIA LORENA; LACZESKI, MARGARITA ESTHER

Conferencia; 3rd WOMEN IN BIOINFORMATICS & DATA SCIENCE LA; 2022

Plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) are a heterogeneous group of bacteria that can exert beneficial effects directly or indirectly on plant growth by different mechanisms. In the last decades, PGPR-based formulations have been used to replace chemical fertilizers. In previous studies, two endophytic endospore-forming bacteria identified as Bacillus altitudinis (T5S-T4 and 19RS3) were isolated from the roots of Ilex paraguariensis St. Hil. seedlings and selected for their plant growth-promoting (PGP) properties shown in nursery and in vitro studies. Both genomes were sequenced, assembled, and reported on the NCBI database. The purpose of this work was to locate genes involved in PGP mechanisms in B. altitudinis genomes and other PGP genomes reported for commercial strains. The genomes of B. altitudinis T5S-T4, B. altitudinis 19RS3, B. altitudinis W3 (accession number: NZ_CP011150.1) an NCBI reference sequence, B. altitudinis GQYP101 (accession number: NZ_CP040514.1) an NCBI reference sequence reported as PGPR, and B. velezensis FZB42 (accession number: CP000560.2) a commercial PGPR strain used as an active principle of Biomex® and Rhizovital®42, were compared to locate genes involved in PGP mechanisms using Geneious 11.0.1 software. The comparison revealed specific gene clusters involved in PGP properties. All the genomes presented genes associated with the production of volatile compounds such as 2,3-butanediol and acetoin. Only B. altitudinis T5S-T4, B. altitudinis 19RS3, and B. velezensis FZB42 showed the presence of genes associated with surfactin production. This commercial strain also presented genes for phytase and iturin production. Interestingly, other genes coding for bacilibactin, IAA production, Pi-specific transporter, and PHO regulon were discovered only in our studied strains. The PGP genes detected agree with the biofertilizer properties observed in other commercial strains. The results obtained make B. altitudinis T5S-T4 and B. altitudinis 19RS3 promissory for their biotechnological application as a biofertilizer.