Flavobacterium

This project aims at describing the evolutionary dynamics of a bacterial genus via the production of a vast amount of data amenable to quantitative phylogenetic and population biology approaches.

The wealth of characterized species makes the genus ideally suited for dense taxon sampling. In addition, some species seem well delineated, for instance F. psychrophilum, whereas others such as F. johnsoniae are already recognized as heterogeneous and loosely defined. The notion of species thus seems to cover a variety of situations that makes the analysis even more interesting.

The project consists of sequencing 100 loci representative of the conserved core genome. The loci are around 600 bp long and are sequenced in a collection of 100 Flavobacterium isolates encompassing all characterized species and a number of unidentified Flavobacterium strains. PCR products specific for each locus are sequenced using the Sanger’s method. Locus selection and PCR primer design relies on the complete genome sequences available in the genus and in the family.

Contacts: Corinne Cruaud (Genoscope) - Pierre Nicolas (INRA)