Genomic Resource of Rice Seed Associated Bacteria

Plants are host to diverse microbiome that might have co-evolved since millions of years. This resident microbiota can act as extended genome by contributing in plant growth, development and protection from biotic and abiotic stresses. Rice (Oryza Sativa) is a staple food consumed by more than 50% of the world’s population. Herein we targeted the bacterial community associated with the healthy rice seeds. In this direction, we isolated and carried out whole genome sequencing of 100 bacterial isolates. These isolates belong to three major bacterial phyla Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria that spread over 15 distinct genus and 29 species. A phylogenetic tree based on a broad set of phylogenomic marker genes confirmed the evolutionary relationship amongst the strains and their phylogenetic grouping. Average Nucleotide Identity was also used to establish species identity of isolates that form a particular phylogenetic and taxonomic grouping. The data generated from the present study is one of the first major genomic resources in the field of phytobiome research. Whole genome sequence of the members will be invaluable in this era of big data driven research.Moreover, themajority of genus and species identified in this study are already known for plant probiotic properties. This genomic data with annotation will aid in comparative, evolutionary and ecological studies of bacteria associated with plants or multi-kingdom bacteria associated with nosocomial infections.