A Preliminary Glimpse into the Genome of Sedimenticola selenatireducens strain AK4OH1

Sedimenticola selenatireducens strain AK4OH1 was isolated under anaerobic conditions from estuarine sediment from the Arthur Kill intertidal region between New Jersey and Staten Island, NY. Strain AK4OH1 belongs to the Gammaproteobacteria and has the unique ability to couple the oxidation of aromatic compounds such as benzoate, 3-hydroxybenzoate, and 4-hydroxybenzoate to selenate respiration. Selenate is reduced to selenite, which is partially reduced further to elemental selenium resulting in a bright red precipitate. Strain AK4OH1 is the type strain of the species. The high quality draft genome comprises 4,588,530 bp encoding 3,440 protein-coding genes and 55 RNA genes, as well as genes involved in the pathways for the anaerobic degradation of 4-hydroxybenzoate and benzoate. Genes for sulfur oxidation were also identified, in accordance with the phylogenetic placement of Sedimenticola within a group of uncultured sulfide-oxidizing symbionts of marine invertebrates. The information gained from the genome sequence of S. selenatireducens will shed light on the pathways involved in both the anaerobic degradation of aromatic acids as well as the transformation of selenium which can lend to bioremediation efforts of both.