Genomics of the Thermophilic Bacterium Reveals Novel Lineage of Deep-Branching Bacterial Phylum.

UNLABELLED

The thermophilic bacterium is affiliated to the deep-branching bacterial lineage in the phylum However, the recent taxonomic study of the phylum revealed that has no specific association with the phylum. The fact that is considered an important model organism for studying the evolution and kinetics of ancestral carbon metabolism pathways, its proper classification is therefore of significant interest In this work, phylogenomics and comparative genomic analyses were employed to ascertain the taxonomic placement of Results from the phylogenetic analyses based on 16S rRNA gene and core genome sequences confirmed the exclusion of from the phylum and further revealed a phylum-level lineage for . The analysis of conserved signature indels (CSIs) specific for the phylum also supported the exclusion of from the phylum. Pan-genome analysis of along with the members of the closely related clade from the phylum revealed that was indeed distinct, supporting its phylum-level placement. Furthermore, the presence of CSIs specific to , and the results from the average nucleotide identity and average amino acid identity analyses, together with the unique characteristic of also provided evidence supporting its assignment to a novel phylum. Based on these results, is proposed to be transferred to a novel family, fam. nov., of a novel order, ord. nov., and a novel class, classis nov., within a novel phylum phyl. nov.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12088-024-01214-9.