Genome sequence of the Medicago-nodulating Ensifer meliloti commercial inoculant strain RRI128

Wayne Reeve, Ross Ballard, Elizabeth Drew, Rui Tian, Lambert Bräu, Lynne Goodwin, Marcel Huntemann, James Han, Reddy Tatiparthi, Amy Chen, Konstantinos Mavrommatis, Victor Markowitz, Krishna Palaniappan, Natalia Ivanova, Amrita Pati, Tanja Woyke, Nikos Kyrpides

Ensifer meliloti strain RRI128 is an aerobic, motile, Gram-negative, non-spore-forming rod. RRI128 was isolated from a nodule recovered from the roots of barrel medic (Medicago truncatula) grown in the greenhouse and inoculated with soil collected from Victoria, Australia. The strain is used in commercial inoculants in Australia. RRI128 nodulates and forms an effective symbiosis with a diverse range of lucerne cultivars (Medicago sativa) and several species of annual medic (M. truncatula, Medicago littoralis and Medicago tornata), but forms an ineffective symbiosis with Medicago polymorpha. Here we describe the features of E. meliloti strain RRI128, together with genome sequence information and annotation. The 6,900,273 bp draft genome is arranged into 156 scaffolds of 157 contigs, contains 6,683 protein-coding genes and 87 RNA-only encoding genes, and is one of 100 rhizobial genomes sequenced as part of the DOE Joint Genome Institute 2010 Genomic Encyclopedia for Bacteria and Archaea-Root Nodule Bacteria (GEBA-RNB) project.