Short communication: Single molecule, real-time sequencing technology revealed species- and strain-specific methylation patterns of 2 Lactobacillus strains

Pacific Biosciences' (Menlo Park, CA) single molecule, real-time sequencing technology was reported to have some advantages in generating finished genomes and characterizing the epigenome of bacteria. In the present study, this technology was used to sequence 2 Lactobacillus strains, Lactobacillus casei Zhang and Lactobacillus plantarum P-8. Previously, the former bacterium was sequenced by an Applied Biosystems 3730 DNA analyzer (Grand Island, NY), whereas the latter one was analyzed with Roche 454 (Indianapolis, IN) and Illumina sequencing technologies (San Diego, CA). The results showed that single molecule, real-time sequencing resulted in high-quality, finished genomes for both strains. Interestingly, epigenome analysis indicates the presence of 1 active N6-methyladenine methyltransferase in L. casei Zhang, but none in L. plantarum P-8. Our study revealed for the first time a completely different methylation pattern in 2 Lactobacillus strains.