Genome of the epiphytic bacterium strain EPI24, isolated from a macroalga located in the Colombian Caribbean.

Marine macroalgae are being recognized as reservoirs of biologically active compounds, as their surfaces are susceptible to the colonization of microorganisms which can produce enzymes with a wide range of molecular architectures. Among these bacteria, is responsible for the biosynthesis of laccases. In this research, we performed a bioinformatic pipeline to annotate the sequenced complete genome of the epiphytic bacterium strain EPI24, from the macroalgal surface of the species; this strain showed laccase activity which has been previously assessed on plate assays. The genome of strain EPI24 has a size of ∼6.95 Mb, a GC content of 67.33%, and 6,603 protein-coding genes. The functional annotation of the strain EPI24 genome confirmed the presence of genes encoding for laccases, which could have functional properties of interest in processes such as the biodegradation of phenolic compounds under versatile and efficient conditions.