About Prokaryotic Genome Processing and Tools

As of October 2013, the prokaryotic genome dataset contains more than 15,000 genomes from almost 4,500 species representing a wide range of organisms. They include many important human pathogens, but also organisms that are of interest for non-medical reasons, biodiversity, epidemiology, and ecology. There are obligate intracellular parasites, symbionts, free-living microbes, hyperthermophiles and psychrophiles, and aquatic and terrestrial microbes, all of which have provided a rich insight into evolution and microbial biology and ecology. There is almost a 20-fold range of genomes sizes, spanning from ultra-small 45 kb archaeal genome of Candidatus Parvarchaeum acidiphilum recently obtained from mine drainage metagenome project (1) to the largest (14,7 Mb) strain of Sorangium cellulosum, an alkaline-adaptive epothilone producer (2).