Hahella chejuensis KCTC 2396

Hahella chejuensis strain KCTC 2396 is a marine red-pigmented gammaproteobacterium belonging to the Oceanospiralles clade. It was originally isolated from the coastal marine sediment of the southernmost island in Korea. It consists of a single circular chromosome and contains 6783 predicted genes. H.chejuensis is a heterotrophic organism living on various resources from mineral to organic materials and even other aquatic organisms. It produces a red pigment, identified as prodigiosin, which has a very efficient lytic activity against the dinoflagellate Cochlodinium polykrikoides. Increases in the population of certain dinoflagellates result in phenomena called algal blooms or red tides, which have become more frequent in recent years throughout the world in the coastal waters. Red tides affect the health of human and marine organisms but also regional economies and marine ecosystems. Hahella chejuensis possesses a complete repertoire of enzyme for central carbon metabolism, including glycolysis, pentose phosphate pathway and TCA cycle as well as those required for biosynthesis of nucleotides and 20 amino acids. Two sets of genes coding for flagellar biosynthesis, type III secretion systems and F0F1-type ATP synthesis have been identified. This multiplicity is more likely to originate from horizontal transfer rather than from a gene duplication inside H.chejuensis genome. Horizontal gene transfer seems to have played an essential role in shaping H.chejuensis as it appears to have at least 69 genomic islands. (EBI Integr8)