Robiginitalea biformata HTCC2501

Robiginitalea biformata (strain ATCC BAA-864 / HTCC2501 / KCTC 12146) is an aerobic, obligatory chemoheterotrophic Gram-negative bacterium with carotenoid pigments and dimorphic growth phases. It was isolated from the Sargasso Sea (Atlantic Ocean) by dilution-to-extinction culturing. As the species name implies, the morphology of R. biformata varies from straight rods (in exponential phase) to coccoid cells (in stationary phase). R. biformata is short to moderately long rods, and forms colonies with a characteristic rusty red pigment. It contains genes for carotenoid biosynthesis but no genes for phototrophy, confirming the obligately chemoheterotrophic metabolism. R. biformata has also a set of genes for a putative carbon monoxide dehydrogenase and enzymes required to degrade high-molecular-weight compounds, including protease, sulfatase, pectinase, chitinase, _-amylases, and a predicted glycogen debranching enzyme. It cannot degrade crystalline cellulose. The Flavobacteriaceae, and particularly R. biformata, may be promising sources of diverse novel monocyclic carotenoids, such as saproxanthin and myxol which are rarely found in nature but were demonstrated previously to show significant antioxidative activities against lipid peroxidation and neuroprotective effects against L-glutamate toxicity. R. biformata may provide a model for studying the biosynthesis of carotenoid congeners produced by marine Flavobacteriaceae and related species. (Adapted from PMID: 19767438). (EBI Integr8)