Mango fruit bacterium carries a toolkit of disease-fighting and growth-boosting genes
Xie Y, Li S, Li Y, Peng J, Liao L
Soil Health
Fungal and bacterial diseases wreck mango and rice harvests, and a friendly microbe that fends them off could someday replace some of the sprays growers rely on.
Researchers found a helpful bacterium living inside mango fruit and read its entire genetic code. It carries recipes for a dozen germ-fighting chemicals, including four nobody has described before, and for compounds that help plants grow. That makes it a promising natural bodyguard for crops like mango and rice.
Key Findings
The ML21 genome is one circular chromosome of 3,929,792 bp with 46.5% GC content and 3,781 protein-coding genes.
Twelve secondary metabolite gene clusters were found; seven match known antimicrobial compounds at 82-100% similarity (surfactin, fengycin, bacilysin, difficidin, macrolactin H, bacillaene), and four novel clusters encode two terpenes, one lanthipeptide and one polyketide.
Plant growth-promoting genes were present, including trpC for indole-3-acetic acid (auxin) and acoA for acetoin biosynthesis.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Scientists decoded the full genome of a bacterium living inside mango fruit that fights both bacterial and fungal plant diseases. Its DNA holds twelve gene clusters for making antimicrobial compounds, four of them new to science, plus genes that help plants grow.
Abstract Preview
Original paper
Complete genome sequencing of Bacillus velezensis ML21, an endophytic strain from mango fruit with strong inhibitory against bacterial and fungal diseases.
Whole-genome sequencing of Bacillus velezensis ML21, a strain with demonstrated antagonistic activity against mango and rice diseases, revealed a single circular chromosome of 3,929,792 bp and 46.5...
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A mango is an edible stone fruit produced by the tropical tree Mangifera indica. It originated in the northeastern part of the Indian subcontinent, in what is now Bangladesh, northeastern India and Myanmar. M. indica has been cultivated in South and Southeast Asia since ancient times, resulting i...