Project summary:

    Paenarthrobacter nicotinovorans pAO1 is a nicotine degrading microorganism that shows promising applications in converting nicotine-containing waste into useful green chemicals. Its biotechnological applications are nevertheless hampered by the lack of knowledge and tools to perform genetic and metabolic engineering. After solving the nicotine-induced proteome of this bacteria, the project leader of the current proposal concluded that none of the draft genomes available for this strain are complete. The current application aims to provide the first complete and annotated genome of P. nicotinovorans pAO1, and, as such, the first complete genome of a nicotine degrading microorganism. In order to achieve this, P. nicotinovorans pAO1 gDNA will be isolated and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) will be performed using two platforms: NGS Illumina for reading depth and ONT MinION for scaffolding and assembling the genome. The quality of the assembly and annotation will be addressed using dRNA-seq and the already available raw proteomics data. The project will not only strengthen the much need bioinformatics know-how in the already existing team of the project leader, but also will group allow the group to generate a genome-scale metabolic model of the nicotine metabolism, and, consecutively, to develop high yield bio-technologies for production on nicotine derivatives.

Main results and impact:

The most important result of the project is making available to the scientific community a set of reference data-sets:

• the first complete and annotated genome of an nicotine-degrading bacteria Paenarthrobacter nicotinovorans ATCC 49199: GenBank CP089293 and CP089294, as well as the associated raw data: PRJNA693273
• a transcriptomics data-set dealing with the nicotine metabolism in Paenarthrobacter nicotinovorans ATCC 49199: Gene Expression Omnibus GSE240220;
•  a complete re-analysis of the proteomics data-set PXD008756  and its integration with the genomics and transcriptomics data-sets to offer a multi-omics analysis if nicotine metabolism.

These public data-sets will allow a better understanding of the nicotine degradation pathway and will allow researchers to manipulate the pathway  in order to develop a biotechnology for conversion of nicotine containing waste into green chemicals such as succinic acid, methyl-amine, or nicotine derivatives.

Project members: 

Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași
Marius Mihășan, PhD	Project coordinator		More details
Marius Ştefan, PhD	Microbiology		U-1700-039M-8493
Răzvan Ștefan Boiangiu	Biochemistry and Molecular Biology		More details
PhDs
Munteanu Iustin Tiberius
Amada El-Sabeh
Students
Honceriu Iasmina	master student
	masters student