Genome of V. Fischeri Sequenced; Bacterium Makes Squid Glow in the Dark

NEW YORK, Feb. 8 (GenomeWeb News) - A consortium of researchers has sequenced the genome of Vibrio fischeri, a symbiotic marine bacterium that makes certain squids and fish glow in the dark.

The genome, published in this week's online edition of PNAS, is 4.3 million base pairs long and encodes almost 4,000 open reading frames.

V. fischeri belongs to the same family as the cholera bacterium but does not cause disease. The researchers sequenced V. fischeri ES114, which lives as a symbiont in the light-emitting organ of the bobtail squid, where it produces luminescence.

The consortium that sequenced the prganism includes researchers at the Universityof Hawaii, the Universityof Iowa, Integrated Genomics, the Universityof Georgia, Virginia Tech, the Universityof California Los Angeles, and Loyola University Chicago.