Abstract Description

Insight into epiphytic microorganisms and their investigation in agriculture have provided opportunities for sustainable plant health and food safety. Whilst there is evidence of notable epiphytic Serratia species that exhibit characteristics that promote plant growth; nevertheless, information on genome analysis of S. marcescens associated with the sweet pepper in South Africa has not been studied. Thus, we present genome assembly of agriculturally important S. marcescens SGT5.3 isolated from fresh sweet pepper fruits. The Illumina sequencing yielded 2 136 098 sequence reads, 151 bp average read length 5,945,881 bp genome size, 56 tRNA, 63 rRNA, and G + C content of 59.8%. The phylogeny analysis of strain SGT5.3 appeared to be identical to Serratia marcescens ATCC 13880. Secondary metabolites including, O-antigen, bicornutin A1, Lankacidin, vulnibactin, Microin H47 and prodigiosin highlighting bacterial biocontrol efficacy against phytopathogens were found in the SGT5.3 genome. Correspondingly putative genes responsible for plant hormone production, transport proteins, adhesion, motility, and nitrogen fixation, all of which play a significant role in symbiosis with the plant and promote plant growth and development were observed. The predicted novel genes could provide a genetic basis in understanding episphere biology and their multiple functions thereof in crop improvement suggesting the significance of SGT5.3 in agricultural biotechnology.