The genome of Bacillus aryabhattai T61 reveals its adaptation to Tibetan Plateau environment

Tibetan Plateau is called ‘the Roof of the World’. Organisms survive there have to adapt to the high altitude environment. By shotgun method, we sequenced the genome of Bacillus aryabhattai T61, which inhabits in the soil at the altitude of 4123 m in Shigatse, Tibetan. Further, we explored the genomic basis for its adaptations to the plateau environment. The results showed that B. aryabhattai T61 has evolved an array of ROS defense systems and sporulation system for adaptations to the stresses caused by the plateau strong ultraviolet radiation, extreme oxygen limitation and low temperature. Specifically, B. aryabhattai T61 encodes the ResE–ResD two-component to sense the oxygen limitation and regulates COX15 for aerobic and anaerobic respiration. The two-component system DesK–DesR, which regulates the gene Des initiating the biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids, along with 33 temperature-shock proteins contribute to low temperature adaptation. With the comparative analysis, we deduced the novel gene cbiY may be involved in cobalamin biosynthesis. We also found that B. aryabhattai T61 may have novel regulatory mechanisms for sporulation initiation. B. aryabhattai T61 is the first Tibetan strain with high quality genome sequenced. The genome provides a paradigm for understanding the adaptations to the plateau environment in Bacteria kingdom.