Abstract
Genomes of the month 14 new genomes!
Fourteen new microbial genomes have been published since last month's Genome Update was written. Since a discussion of so many genomes would take too much space, only a few select genomes will be discussed in detail; the others are listed in Table 1 and mentioned only briefly. The genomes range in size from 0·6 Mbp for a polydnavirus [Cotesia congregata bracovirus (CcBV); Espagne et al., 2004], about the same size as the smallest bacterial genome, to about 34 Mbp for a diatom (Thalassiosira pseudonana). The remaining dozen prokaryotic genomes include that of an archaeon (Methanococcus maripaludis strain S2; Hendrickson et al., 2004) and those of 11 bacteria: seven Proteobacteria (discussed below), two Firmicutes (Bacillus), one Bacteroides species (Bacteroides fragilis strain YCH46, Kuwahara et al., 2004) and an actinobacterium (Nocardia farcinica strain IFM 10152, a clinical isolate; Ishikawa et al., 2004). In addition, two spirochaete genomes have been published (Qiu et al., 2004) but, as discussed below, these are not included in Table 1.