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Journal of Genomics logoLink to Journal of Genomics
. 2022 Jun 6;10:49–56. doi: 10.7150/jgen.74788

Draft Genomes of Nitrogen-fixing Frankia Strains Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 Isolated from Root Nodules of Alnus Glutinosa

Philippe Normand 1,, Petar Pujic 1, Danis Abrouk 1, Spandana Vemulapally 2, Trina Guerra 2, Camila Carlos-Shanley 2, Dittmar Hahn 2
PMCID: PMC9194555  PMID: 35707396

Abstract

The genomes of two nitrogen-fixing Frankia strains, Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24, isolated from root nodules of Alnus glutinosa are described as representatives of a novel candidate species. Phylogenomic and ANI analyses confirmed that both strains are related to cluster 1 frankiae, and that both strains belong to a novel species. At 6.4 - 6.7 Mb, their genomes were smaller than those of other cultivated Alnus-infective cluster 1 strains but larger than that of the non-cultivated Alnus-infective cluster 1 Sp+ strain AgTrS that was their closest neighbor as assessed by ANI. Comparative genomic analyses identified genes essential for nitrogen-fixation, gene composition as regards COGs, secondary metabolites clusters and transcriptional regulators typical of those from Alnus-infective cluster 1 cultivated strains in both genomes. There were 459 genes present in other cultivated Alnus-infective strains lost in the two genomes, spread over the whole of the genome, which indicates genome erosion is taking place in these two strains.

Keywords: Frankia, Actinorhizal symbiosis, genome, nitrogen-fixing frankiae, biosynthetic gene clusters

Introduction

The genus Frankia consists of nitrogen- and non-nitrogen-fixing actinobacteria that can occur in root nodules in symbiosis with a variety of woody plants 1, 2, and in soil 3. Root nodule formation is host plant-specific, with host infection groups, i.e. the Alnus and Casuarina host infection group, the Rosaceae/Coriariaceae/Datiscaceae host infection group and the Elaeagnaceae/Rhamnaceae host infection group, respectively, largely represented by Frankia clusters 1, 2 and 3. These clusters were established by comparative analyses of ribosomal RNA gene sequences 4 and represent nitrogen-fixing frankiae, while cluster 4 frankiae are typically unable to fix N2, with one exception, and are often not able to form root nodules 4, 5. Within clusters, assignment of strains to sub-clusters, OTUs, groups and genomospecies have been used to further describe diversity within the genus 4, 6-9.

Whole genome sequence analyses resulted in the description of several species within the genus Frankia. These analyses include isolates deposited as type strains in culture collections, as well as uncultured Frankia populations in root nodules of specific host plants described as candidate species 10. As summarized by Normand and Fernandez 10, cluster 1 is currently the most extensively described cluster with four species and two candidate species described, while one species and three candidate species are identified in cluster 2. Four species belong to cluster 3, and three species to cluster 4, with genomes of two additional potential species published recently 11. For cluster 1, comparative sequence analyses of amplicons of an actinobacteria-specific insertion in the 23S rRNA genes of frankiae identified several strains clustering together but distinct from type strains of cluster 1 12. These strains included strains Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 isolated from root nodules of Alnus glutinosa from two lake shores, one in Germany and one in The Netherlands about 500 km apart, i.e. Grossensee (53.631031, 10.359319) 13, and Hoogmade (52.162016, 4.591356) 7, respectively. The goal of this study was to use whole genome sequence analyses to assess the viability of our previous amplicon-based analysis, and thus affirm the potential of these strains for the description of a new species.

Materials and Methods

Sample preparation

Frankia strains Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 that were previously identified as members of cluster 1, representing a subcluster designated as subgroup II (14) or cluster 1b (12) were from a stock frozen at -20 °C in Defined Propionate Medium (DPM) containing propionate and NH4Cl as C and N source, respectively (15), at 30 °C for two weeks. Cells were harvested by centrifugation (15,000 × g, 5 min) and aggregates homogenized by brief sonication (10 s at 20% output in a S-450 sonifier, Branson Ultrasonics, Danbury, CT) (16). After an additional centrifugation, DNA was extracted from cell pellets using the SurePrepTM Soil DNA Isolation Kit (Fisher Scientific, Houston, TX) (17). DNA concentrations were measured with a Qubit® 2.0 Fluorometer (Life Technologies, Carlsbad, USA), and DNA sent to the Microbial Genomics Sequencing Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA for library preparation and sequencing using the Illumina tagmentation protocol and the NextSeq Illumina platform (2 × 150 bp) using standard protocols.

Genome assembly

Sequence reads were filtered and trimmed using the default settings of fastp (18), and reads with average %GC<54 were removed using bbduk (https://jgi.doe.gov/data-and-tools/bbtools/bb-tools-user-guide/). Genomes were assembled using SPAdes 3.13.0 19 and QUAST to check the quality of the assembled genomes 20. Their completeness was estimated using the lineage workflow (lineage_set) CheckM v1.0.18 21 with default values.

Comparative genomic analysis

Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI) comparisons (22) were performed for all Frankia genomes of type strains of described species and other selected genomes using the pyani platform with the b (Blast) setting (23; https://pyani.readthedocs.io). The genomes were compared to Frankia genomes of type strains of isolates on the Mage platform 24 to compute clusters of orthologous genes or COGs 25, to identify secondary metabolites clusters through antiSMASH 26, and identify genes specific to the new genomes or lost in the two genomes. A phylogenetic tree was reconstructed using a MASH distance matrix 27 and the tree computed dynamically directly in the Mage browser using a rapid neighbour joining algorithm 28.

Results

Sequence data

CheckM analyses showed that the assembled genomes for strains Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 were complete with scores of 98.09 for both strains. The number of contigs was 113 and 181 for Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24, respectively. The largest contig was 550369 and 296366 for Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24, respectively. The strain contamination index (CheckM) was 1.09 and 0.55 for Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24, respectively.

Phylogenetic analysis of Frankia spp. Isolates

The two genomes were similar in size with about 6.4 Mb and 6.7 Mb, respectively, which is about 1 Mb smaller than those of other Alnus-infective cluster 1 cultivated strains (Table 1). They were also similar in DNA G+C% content at 71.35-71.37, which is 1% lower than values for other Alnus-infective cluster 1 cultivated strains. A phylogenetic tree generated from the MASH matrix with Frankia genomes of type strains revealed that the closest strains to Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 were members of cluster 1 (Figure 1). Average nucleotide identity (ANI) between strains Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 was 97%, indicating that they belong to a single genospecies (Figure 2). An ANI of 97% was also obtained with strain AgTrS, an uncultured Frankia population in root nodules representing Candidatus Frankia nodulisporulans. Since this strain is an obligate symbiont with a very different physiology, it will not be considered further in the present study. ANI values at or below 80% were obtained for both strains in comparison with Frankia genomes of type strains of all described species (Figure 2). The ANI values with other cluster 1 genomes ranged from 78% (CcI3) to 80% (ACN14a), while 75-76% values were obtained with cluster 2 genomes, and 76-77% with cluster 3 and 4 genomes (Figure 2).

Table 1.

Basic genome characteristics of Frankia strains Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 compared to those of type strains of Frankia species in clusters 1 to 4

Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 Cluster 4
Strain ACN14aT ARgP5T CpI1T QA3 Ag45/Mut15 AgPM24 CcI3T BMG5.1T BCU110501T BMG5.12T G2T CjT EAN1pec EUN1f M16386T EuI1cT Cn3T DC12
Collection DSM 45986 DSM 45898 DSM 44263 DSM 45818 DSM 100624 DSM
46785
DSM 46783 DSM 45899 DSM 100623 DSM 100626 DSM 45817 DSM 105290
Frankia species alni canadensis torreyi casuarinae coriariae discariae elaeagni irregularis soli asymbiotica inefficax saprophytica
Genomic G+C content (mol%) 72.8 72.4 72.4 72.6 71.37 71.35 70.1 71.0 72.3 71.7 70.9 71.1 70.94 70.82 71.93 72.3 71.8 71.93
Genome length (nt) 7497934 7730285 7624758 7590853 6443382 6672691 5433628 5795263 7891711 7589313 9537992 8061539 9035218 9322173 9435764 8815781 9978592 6884336
# CDS 6,714 7,500 7,201 7,307 6,088 6,370 5,593 6,487 7,567 6,977 8,663 8,108 9,063 9,428 8,884 8,099 9,262 6,630
# secondary metabolite clusters* 27 33 28 33 29 38 26 22 36 35 37 30 27 33 29 23 28 15
nifH** 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
shc 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2
hupL 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
sufD 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
celA1 2 2 2 0 2 2 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1
glxA 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1
bcsA 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
gvpJ 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
sodF 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0
geoA 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 0 0
argG 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
accA 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0
can 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 2 2 0 1 0 0
rhbE 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
lac 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1
phdA 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0
dctA 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
tgsA 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0
ddnB 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0
mopB 1 1 2 2 2 2 1 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 0 0 0 0
qorB 1 2 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
glbN 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 0 1
# contigs 1 568 153 120 113 181 1 116 207 139 83 289 1 396 174 1 2 1
Accession NC_008278.1 OESX01000001 JYFN00000000 WGS NZ_AJWA.1 JALKFT000000000 JALKFW000000000 CP000249.1 JWIO00000000 ARDT00000000 ARFH00000000 FAOZ00000000 MAXA00000000.1 AAII00000000 ADGX00000000 MOMC00000000 CP002299.1 AGJN00000000 LANG01000000
Reference (30) (39) (40) (41) this study (30) (38) (42) (43) (44) (45) (30) (46) (47) (46) (30) (46)

* indicates the number of clusters identified by AntiSMASH

** indicates the number of hits (>50%) following a BlastP. nif is nitrogenase, shc is squalene hopene cyclase, hup is hydrogenase uptake, suf is sulfur-iron cluster, cel is cellulase, glx is glucose oxidase, bcs is cellulose synthase,

gvp is gas vesicle cluster, sodF is superoxide dismutase iron, geoA is geosmine synthase, arG is arginine, acc is acetate carboxylase, can is carbonic anhydrase, rhb is rhizobactin, lac is laccase, phd is a phytoene desaturase,

dct is a dicarboxylate transporter, tgs is diacylglycerol O-acyltransferase. ddn is F420H(2)-dependent quinone nitroreductase, mop is molybdenum transport, qor is quinone oxydoreductase, glb is hemoglobin.

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Phylogenetic tree of complete genomes using Micromonospora lupini (NZ_CAIE00000000.1) as outgroup. Clusters are indicated on the right.

Figure 2.

Figure 2

Heatmap matrix of Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI) comparisons (in percent) for the Frankia genomes of type strains of described species using the pyani platform with the b (Blast) setting (23); https://pyani.readthedocs.io). The two genomes described in the present study are highlighted in grey.

Analysis of functional genes in Frankia spp. isolates

Most genes associated with the Frankia-actinorhizal plant symbiosis were recovered in the two genomes, i.e. nif, hup, suf, shc, cel, glx, bcsA (Table 1). All genes that are more abundant in symbiotic lineages (clusters 1, 2 and 3) than in non-symbiotic lineages (cluster 4) (sodF, geoA, argF, accA, rhbE, dctA, phdA, tgsA, ddnB) were also recovered in Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 (Table 1). Conversely, gvp genes that code for gas vesicle proteins and one of the two hup clusters that are found in infective cluster 1 strains were not found in the two genomes.

The COG computation showed a set-up for Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 characteristic of other Alnus-infective cluster 1 strains with a low number of categories “N” (Cell motility) and “O” (Posttranslational modification, protein turnover, chaperones) (Table 2). These results are similar for the antiSMASH computation that showed Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 to have a set-up characteristic of other Alnus-infective cluster 1 strains with a high number of T1PKS and NRPS (Table 3) as were transcriptional regulators with a low number of GntR, IclR, LysR regulators (Table 4). A phyloprofile of genes present in Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 but without homologs at a threshold of 50% identity in AA and present in a synteny group in F. alni ACN14a, Frankia sp. QA3, F. torreyi CpI1 and F. canadensis ARgP5 yielded 1068 hits of which 621 were “proteins of unknown function”, 37 “HTH-transcriptional regulators”, 15 “acyl-CoA metabolism”, 5 “sigma factors”, 9 “amidohydrolase”, 14 “ABC transporter” and 7 “P450 cytochrome” (Table S1). Two were involved in the metabolism of xylose and xylulose.

Table 2.

COG characteristics of Frankia strains Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 compared to those of type strains of Frankia species in clusters 1 to 4

Strain Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 Cluster 4
ACN14aT ARgP5T CpI1T QA3 Ag45/Mut15 AgPM24 CcI3T BMG5.1T BCU110501T BMG5.12T G2T CjT EAN1pec EUN1f M16386T EuI1cT Cn3T DC12
species alni canadensis torreyi casuarinae coriariae discariae elaeagni irregularis soli asymbiotica inefficax saprophytica
Class1
D 56 66 75 64 56 61 57 80 65 63 80 66 65 78 63 62 64 67
M 241 189 253 236 225 241 207 203 292 259 297 248 292 311 299 258 266 255
N 19 15 26 22 12 17 12 30 20 16 28 21 20 29 16 20 11 17
O 181 134 181 190 133 140 147 149 200 165 176 200 200 195 177 173 200 149
T 325 226 320 326 291 290 232 253 405 336 436 400 405 418 415 405 494 282
U 42 38 50 38 45 50 48 50 54 53 66 56 54 64 53 52 52 50
V 94 74 86 102 77 81 60 78 107 84 117 126 107 110 130 113 153 113
J 212 226 212 257 209 212 202 243 207 197 203 219 207 226 243 241 247 232
K 565 402 594 646 509 525 369 409 739 577 778 688 739 755 785 809 945 520
L 270 254 351 356 308 319 433 289 613 398 398 518 613 468 380 286 409 399
C 435 323 455 472 346 347 256 362 492 394 527 451 492 530 555 507 589 332
E 523 386 482 534 452 451 335 396 577 461 630 516 577 623 670 661 704 447
F 111 82 104 108 96 94 94 92 107 94 103 101 107 97 129 116 114 107
G 326 274 321 342 289 297 233 249 418 326 372 360 418 428 450 426 488 302
H 192 149 186 187 170 184 174 173 187 177 192 181 187 182 188 186 208 163
I 432 258 400 460 296 303 191 297 513 412 643 405 513 619 586 624 619 313
P 311 243 323 332 307 313 210 293 381 298 408 343 381 387 402 394 427 278
Q 376 226 368 371 304 339 197 320 488 369 565 417 488 550 531 534 569 256
R 1009 704 1005 1059 814 836 619 682 1216 969 1323 1064 1216 1280 1343 1332 1508 865
S 301 226 315 286 258 278 223 243 323 297 336 328 323 338 341 334 375 284

1class: D: Cell cycle control, cell division, chromosome partitioning; M: Cell wall/membrane/envelope biogenesis; N: Cell motility; O: Posttranslational modification, protein turnover, chaperones; T: Signal transduction mechanisms; U: Intracellular trafficking, secretion, and vesicular transport; V: Defense mechanisms; J: Translation, ribosomal structure and biogenesis; K: Transcription; L: Replication, recombination and repair; C: Energy production and conversion; E: Amino acid transport and metabolism; F: Nucleotide transport and metabolism; G: Carbohydrate transport and metabolism; H: Coenzyme transport and metabolism; I: Lipid transport and metabolism; P: Inorganic ion transport and metabolism; Q: Secondary metabolites biosynthesis, transport and catabolism; R: General function prediction only; S: Function unknown.

Table 3.

Number of secondary metabolites clusters (antiSMASH) of Frankia strains Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 compared to those of cultivated type strains of Frankia species in clusters 1 to 4

Strain Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 Cluster 4
ACN14aT ARgP5T CpI1T QA3 Ag45/Mut15 AgPM24 CcI3T BMG5.1T BCU110501T BMG5.12T G2T CjT EAN1pec EUN1f M16386T EuI1cT Cn3T DC12
species alni canadensis torreyi casuarinae coriariae discariae elaeagni irregularis soli asymbiotica inefficax saprophytica
t1PKS1 6 9 8 8 9 11 1 6 16 13 6 9 5 9 6 5 2 1
t2PKS 1 3 1 3 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 2 1 2 1 1
t3PKS 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 2 0 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 1 2
otherKS 4 4 3 3 3 5 4 1 4 3 6 4 4 6 2 1 2 1
t1pks-NRPS 1 0 1 0 1 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0
NRPS 3 6 2 2 6 6 0 1 1 2 9 5 3 5 4 2 7 1
terpene 5 3 5 5 4 4 4 3 4 4 3 5 4 4 5 4 4 3
lanthipeptide 1 1 1 3 0 3 6 2 4 3 2 1 4 3 1 2 1 2
bacteriocin 2 1 2 2 1 2 1 1 2 2 2 2 3 0 3 1 2 0
siderophore 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0
lassopeptide 1 1 1 2 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 2 1 2
betalactone 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 2 0 1
thiopeptide 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
butyrolactone 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
phosphonate 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
arylpolyene 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
nucleoside 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
ladderane 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
oligosaccharide 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
resorcinol 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
LAP 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
other 0 2 2 3 1 0 4 1 1 5 1 1 0 1 2 1 5 1
Total/strain 27 33 28 33 29 38 26 22 36 35 37 30 27 33 29 23 28 15

1-tnPKS is type “n” PolyKetide Synthase, NRPS is Non Ribosomal Peptide Synthase, LAP is Linear Azole/azoline-containing Peptide.

Table 4.

Number of transcriptional regulators of Frankia strains Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 compared to those of type strains of Frankia species in clusters 1 to 4

Strain Cluster 1 Cluster 2 Cluster 3 Cluster 4
ACN14aT ARgP5T CpI1T QA3 Ag45/Mut15 AgPM24 CcI3T BMG5.1T BCU110501T BMG5.12T G2T CjT EAN1pec EUN1f M16386T EuI1cT Cn3T DC12
species alni canadensis torreyi casuarinae coriariae discariae elaeagni irregularis soli asymbiotica inefficax saprophytica
Class1
AraC 9 9 10 16 6 6 2 5 15 13 17 16 28 17 20 22 21 6
ArsR 9 6 5 1 7 6 6 5 4 4 11 6 11 9 9 16 8 8
AsnC 3 2 2 4 4 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 5 4 5 5 5 3
CRP 4 2 1 1 4 4 2 3 3 3 5 2 3 5 3 5 2 3
DeoR 4 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 1 0 2 4 0 2 2 2 1
DtxR 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
FurC 2 3 3 4 3 3 2 2 5 4 5 5 4 4 5 4 4 5
GntR 25 19 10 20 7 5 6 8 21 12 19 19 20 24 27 35 30 11
IclR 3 6 4 9 4 3 2 1 4 7 12 6 12 12 6 13 11 7
LuxR 10 19 19 36 10 14 20 15 22 9 18 15 58 40 18 64 29 14
LysR 18 16 12 22 11 10 5 5 14 10 20 13 13 17 24 20 22 13
MarR 21 19 13 33 16 15 15 23 18 20 31 25 27 30 32 33 35 19
MerR 8 17 9 22 10 10 12 4 13 12 15 13 15 17 16 19 18 7
TetR 92 78 117 127 61 65 30 47 113 77 39 126 147 156 156 191 18 59
WhiB 7 7 8 7 5 6 6 6 10 5 6 9 6 5 8 10 7 8

1class: AraC: arabinose regulator; ArsR: arsenic resistance; AsnC: asparagine synthase regulator; CRP: cyclic AMP receptor protein (catabolite repression); DeoR: deoxyribonucleoside synthesis operon regulator; DtxR: diphtheria toxin repressor; FurC: ferric uptake regulator; GntR: gluconate regulator; IclR: isocitrate lyase regulator; LuxR: quorum-sensing luminescence regulator; LysR: lysine regulator; MarR: Multiple antibiotic resistance regulator; MerR: mercury resistance regulator; TetR: Tetracycline repressor; WhiB: regulation of morphological differentiation.

A reverse study for genes present in F. alni ACN14a, Frankia sp. QA3, F. torreyi CpI1 and F. canadensis ARgP5 but absent in Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 yielded 459 hits among which an xanthine dehydrogenase locus, a CRISPR-locus, a acetyl/propionyl CoA carboxylase locus, an uptake hydrogenase locus, a dicarboxylate transporter, a hup locus, the GVP locus, several transporters (Table S1).

The genes lost in Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 have been mapped on the genome of ACN14a and found to be evenly spread over the whole genome (Supplementary Fig. 1).

Discussion

Phylogenomic and ANI analyses confirmed that strains Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 are related to cluster 1 frankiae, and indicate that both strains isolated from Alnus glutinosa belong to a novel species. Genome sizes of both strains were about 6.4 Mb and 6.7 Mb, respectively, and thus smaller than genomes of most cluster 1 and some cluster 3 frankiae (7.5 Mb to 7.9 Mb), though genomes of Frankia casuarinae (4.9 to 5.6 Mb) and F. nodulisporulans (4.9 Mb), as well as F. coriariae as cluster 2 representative (5.8 Mb) were even smaller (see 5 for review). Some cluster 3 frankiae were much larger in size (9.0 to 10.4 Mb) 29-31, similar to many cluster 4 frankiae (8.8 to 10.7 Mb) 11. Frankiae with larger genomes that often result from duplications of genes involved in substrate transfers into central metabolic pathways (e.g. cluster 1, 3 and 4 frankiae), might have an enhanced potential to exploit a large variety of environments 30, 32, compared to frankiae with smaller genomes due to genome reductions that are associated to reduced saprotrophic potential, while maintaining their symbiotic potential (e.g. F. casuarinae, F. nodulisporulans and F. coriariae).

Both Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 belong to a group of strains within cluster 1 that are able to use leaf litter compounds as carbon resource in addition to root exudates commonly used by other strains of clusters 1, 3 and 4 16, 33. Together with cluster 3 frankiae, members of this group have been identified as major populations in soils, with absolute numbers depending on the sampling depth, physicochemical conditions and the vegetation 12, 14, 34, 35. Young stands of both host trees (e.g. natural stands of A. glutinosa) 35, and non-host trees (e.g. young plantations of Betula nigra) 14 seem to promote members of this group, as do leaf litter amendments to soils, both for introduced and indigenous populations 36. Thus, this group with strains Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 as representatives could be adapted to carbon resources provided by the decomposition of plant material and represent a group of frankiae characteristic of soils in early stages of plant-mediated organic matter accumulation.

Functional genes typically found in nitrogen-fixing frankiae (i.e. clusters 1, 2 and 3) within the Frankia-actinorhizal plant symbiosis were recovered in the genomes of strains Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24. These strains appear to have lost a large number of genes dispensable for saprotrophic life as is the case in Sp+ lineages 37 or in cl2 lineages 32 where one megabase or more relative to the closest neighbor has been lost. This process of gene erosion is slow with seemingly a conserved possibility of growth under physiologically demanding conditions 38. The full extent of diversity with cluster 1 is slowly emerging with the description of genomes from new lineages such as the present one. It appears some lineages such as F. torreyi and even more so F. casuarinae have been isolated repeatedly while others such as QA3, F. canadensis and the two lineages Ag45/Mut15 and AgPM24 described in the present study have been more rarely isolated. Two related factors have probably caused this distortion, one is the evolutionary success over long eras resulting in a higher abundance in nature and the other is the physiological ability to grow relatively fast on a large range of substrates resulting in a higher isolation success rate. Their genome composition should now be analyzed in that light of adaptation to contrasted biotopes.

Data Summary

Genomes of the strains sequenced in this study from Dr. Dittmar Hahn culture collection and were deposited in the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), under BioProject Number PRJNA680372. Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) accession numbers are JALKFT000000000 for strain Ag45/Mut15, and JALKFW000000000 for strain AgPM24.

A list of other Frankia genomes utilized in this study can be found in Table 1. All sequences were downloaded from the NCBI Assembly database.

Supplementary Material

Supplementary figure and table.

Acknowledgments

The authors are indebted to the Graduate College (Doctoral Research Support Fellowship to S. Vemulapally), and the Department of Biology at Texas State University for financial support.

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