Core Genome of Deinococcota Phylum from 72 Strains Across 40 Species Consist of Only One Gene, Beta Subunit of DNA Directed RNA Polymerase

Citation: Lum, AKY, Shanmugam, JH, Teo, W, Kwan ZJ, Ng, SMH, Ling, MHT. 2024. Core Genome of Deinococcota Phylum from 72 Strains Across 40 Species Consist of Only One Gene, Beta Subunit of DNA-Directed RNA Polymerase. Medicon Microbiology 3(1): 03-06.

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Deinococcota, or Deinococcus-Thermus, is a phylum of highly environmentally tolerant extremophiles with value in industrial applications and evolution studies. Phylogenetics using core genome is an important aspect of evolutionary studies. However, the core genome of Deinococcota phylum has not yet been identified. In this study, we report 6 species-specific core genomes of Deinococcota. However, the core genome of Deinococcota from 72 strains across 40 species consist of only one gene – beta subunit of DNA-directed RNA polymerase. This surprisingly small core genome may be the result of tolerance to diverse environments and may suggest that sequence similarity alone may not be sufficient enough to identify core genomes.