RhizoGATE - The gateway to rhizobial genomes

Rhizobia are a diverse group of bacteria that engage in symbiosis with the roots of leguminous host plants. Once established as symbionts, these bacteria reduce dinitrogen to a form the plant can use for growth. Symbiotic bacteria contribute significantly to an ecologically-sound and cost-efficient nitrogen supply. Most rhizobia (order Rhizobiales) belong to families within the Alphaproteobacteria subdivision. The RhizoGATE portal was established by a consortium as a single access site to genome and postgenome data of this group of bacteria to facilitate data management and access to information. It integrates a number of analysis tools  and data repositories. RhizoGATE RhizoRegNet is a database and analysis tool for regulatory networks in Sinorhizobium meliloti.

The Sinorhizobium meliloti 1021 genome sequence

Sinorhizobium meliloti (formerly Rhizobium meliloti) is a soil bacterium that can live either as free-living bacterium in the soil and rhizosphere or as nitrogen-fixing endosymbiont inside root-nodule cells of plants of certain genera of leguminous plants, including Medicago, Melilotus and Trigonella. Inside the nodules, differentiated bacteria called bacteroids fix atmospheric nitrogen to the benefit of the plant. Like many other members of the alpha-proteobacteria, S. meliloti possesses a multipartite genome. It contains three replicons: a chromosome (3.65 Mb) and two megaplasmids, pSymA (1.35 Mb) and pSymB (1.68 Mb).

The genome sequence of S. meliloti strain 1021 was determined applying a replicon-based strategy. A European consortium led by Prof. F. Galibert and funded by the European Union took charge of sequencing the chromosome. Prof. S. R. Long at Stanford University (USA) was responsible for the pSymA project. Sequencing of pSymB was a joint endeavor of Prof. A. Pühler at Bielelfeld University (Germany) and Prof. T. Finan and Prof. B. Golding, both at McMaster University (Hamilton, Canada). For further details see these references.

A consortium has formed to regularly update the annotation of the S. meliloti 1021 genome

The S. meliloti 1021 genome can be browsed with the GenDB 2.2 web interface.

Public Sinorhizobium meliloti 1021 genome browser

Consortium Sinorhizobium meliloti 1021 genome browser

System requirements for GenDB 2.2:

General information about the GenDB 2.2 system

S. meliloti transcriptomics

Enter information on S. meliloti transcriptomic tools.

S. meliloti mutants

Enter information on S. meliloti mutant libraries.