Draft Genome Sequence of Mercury-Resistant Serratia sp. Strain SRS-8-S-2018

Abstract

A mercury (Hg)-resistant Serratia sp. strain, SRS-8-S-2018, was isolated, followed by generation of its draft genome sequence, which indicated a genomic size of 5,323,630 bp composed of 5,261 coding sequences. A suite of genomic functions in strain SRS-8-S-2018 was identified, and these likely facilitate survival in a metalliferous soil habitat.

Announcing the Availability of a Culture Collection of Uranium-Resistant Microbial Assemblages (CURMA) Obtained from Metalliferous Soils of the Savannah River Site, USA

“…( n = 11) and Penicillium spp. ( n = 8) being dominant; some of these groups have also been identified as predominant groups in metagenomic analyses ( 7 , 8 ), including our work on this aspect ( 5 , 9 , 10 ). Some other groups retrieved as higher representatives included Pseudomonas ( n = 4), Bradyrhizobium ( n = 4), Burkholderia ( n = 3), Serratia ( n = 3), and Lepidosphaeria ( n = 3).…”

“… a Note that all strains were isolated on plates containing 2 mM uranium and hence are U resistant. Some strains, designated by an asterisk (*), were chosen for additional MIC assessment based on their predominance in the metalliferous SRS soils ( 5 , 9 , 10 ). …”

Is Long-Term Heavy Metal Exposure Driving Carriage of Antibiotic Resistance in Environmental Opportunistic Pathogens: A Comprehensive Phenomic and Genomic Assessment Using Serratia sp. SRS-8-S-2018

“…Despite this advantage of microbially based heavy metal bioremediation, studies have also unequivocally shown that bacteria can acquire antibiotic resistance when exposed to long-term contamination, especially with Hg and U ( Benyehuda et al, 2003 ), including our previous work ( Agarwal et al, 2019 , 2020a , b ; Gendy et al, 2020a , b ; Pathak et al, 2020 ). This builds upon significant evidence that exists on the SRS soils which unequivocally shows higher levels of antibiotic resistance in contaminated SRS soils relative to reference soils ( Stepanauskas et al, 2006 ; Wright et al, 2006 ; Thomas et al, 2020 ).…”

“…Heavy metal contamination is a global environmental problem shown to cause both ecological and public health problems ( Tchounwou et al, 2012 ). However, ecosystems with pervasive and long-term heavy metal contamination, such as the Savannah River Site (SRS), located in Aiken, SC, United States, are known to harbor metal-resistant microorganisms, which have acquired genomic features to resist and circumvent metal toxicity ( Ye, 2014 ; Agarwal et al, 2018 ; Pathak et al, 2019 , 2020 ; Gendy et al, 2020a , b ). The two main heavy metal contaminants within the impacted SRS soils include mercury (Hg) and uranium (U) ( Sowder et al, 2003 ).…”

“…Our ongoing culture-dependent and culture-independent work on the SRS metalliferous soils has demonstrated several different bacterial groups involved in metal cycling processes, such as Arthrobacter spp., Burkholderia spp., Bacillus spp., Bradyrhizobium spp., Pseudomonas spp., Lysinibacillus spp., Paenibacillus spp., Stenotrophomonas spp., and Serratia spp. ( Agarwal et al, 2020a , b ; Gendy et al, 2020b ). Many of these groups have been demonstrated to cycle Hg by activity of their mer operon, which consists of regulatory proteins- MerR and MerD, transport proteins- MerP, T and E, as well as protein(s) with reductase activity- MerA ( Agarwal et al, 2019 ; Pathak et al, 2020 ).…”