Biotechnological Potential of Cold Adapted Pseudoalteromonas spp. Isolated from 'Deep Sea' Sponges.

The marine genus is known for its versatile biotechnological potential with respect to the production of antimicrobials and enzymes of industrial interest. We have sequenced the genomes of three sp. strains isolated from different deep sea sponges on the Illumina MiSeq platform. The isolates have been screened for various industrially important enzymes and comparative genomics has been applied to investigate potential relationships between the isolates and their host organisms, while comparing them to free-living spp. from shallow and deep sea environments. The genomes of the sponge associated strains contained much lower levels of potential eukaryotic-like proteins which are known to be enriched in symbiotic sponge associated microorganisms, than might be expected for true sponge symbionts. While all the shared a large distinct subset of genes, nonetheless the number of unique and accessory genes is quite large and defines the pan-genome as open. Enzymatic screens indicate that a vast array of enzyme activities is expressed by the isolates, including β-galactosidase, β-glucosidase, and protease activities. A β-glucosidase gene from one of the isolates, strain EB27 was heterologously expressed in and, following biochemical characterization, the recombinant enzyme was found to be cold-adapted, thermolabile, halotolerant, and alkaline active.