Molecular Insights into Beneficial Effects of Tea-Plant Growth and Selenium Enrichment by Herbaspirillum camelliae

Abstract

Herbaspirillum camelliae WT00C, as a tea-plant endophytic bacterium, not only colonizes specifically in tea plants but also promotes tea-plant growth and selenium enrichment. Different from diazotrophic endophytes H. seropedicae, H. frisingense and H. rubrisubalbicans, H. camelliae WT00C does not display nitrogen-fixing activity. To understand the molecular mechanisms of promoting the growth of tea plant and Se-enrichment, we sequenced and annotated the genome of H. camelliae WT00C. The results showed that the genome was composed of 6,079,821 base pairs with a total of 5,537 genes. The genomic survey also revealed that H. camelliae WT00C was a multifunctional bacterium metabolizing a variety of carbon and nitrogen sources and defending against biotic and abiotic stress. Although this bacterium did not have intact nitrogen-fixing genes, its genome held the genes responsible for indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) biosynthesis, 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate (ACC) deamination, siderophore synthesis, ammonia formation, urea metabolism, glutathione and selenocompound metabolisms. Biosynthesis of IAA, siderophore, ammonia, urea and ACC deaminase could explain why two bacterial strains promote tea-plant growth and development. Selenocompound metabolism in this bacterium might also benefit tea-plant growth and Se-enrichment. In addition, the genome of H. camelliae also contained a multitude of protein secretion systems T1SS, T3SS, T4SS and T6SS, in which T4SS did not exhibit in other members of the genus Herbaspirillum.