ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbiotechnology
Bacillus velezensis T971 genome informs starch degradation in tobacco
Provisionally accepted
Liwei Hu1
Xinpeng Zhang2
Qin Gao3
Mengmeng Yang1Xiangzhou Dong3Tingming Cheng3
Taibo Liang1Bingye Yang1Yanling Zhang1
Yanbin Yin2*- 1China National Tobacco Corp Zhengzhou Tobacco Research Institute, Zhengzhou, China
- 2University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, GA, United States
- 3Anhui Wannan Tobacco Co. Ltd, Xuancheng, China
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Starch is an important reserve polysaccharide of tobacco leaves. An endophyte Bacillus velezensis T971 was isolated from leaves of Nicotiana tabacum L. Yunyan 97, possessing a high starch degrading ability in the agar plate containing 1% starch (w/v). The complete genome of T971 was determined with a PacBio long read sequencing, resulting in a single circular chromosome with 3,930,941 bps encoding 3,692 proteins. The T971 genome was compared to 242 other complete genomes of B. velezensis. A pan-genome analysis revealed a sporadic distribution of the plantazolicin (PZN) biosynthetic gene cluster and mobile genetic elements (e.g., genomic islands and prophages) that have contributed to the B. velezensis variable genomes. A carbohydrate active enzyme (CAZyme) analysis found 113 CAZymes in the T971 genome, including 41 glycoside hydrolases (GHs), 40 glycosyltransferases (GTs), 14 carbohydrate esterases (CEs). One of the four α-amylases (GH13_28 family) is the most promising candidate for the starch degradation in tobacco leaves, which has a signal peptide and two carbohydrate-binding modules (CBMs). This study identifies B. velezensis T971 as a potential strain for industrial amylase production.
Keywords: Starch, Nicotiana tabacum, Bacillus velezensis, amylase, CAZyme
Received: 20 Aug 2025; Accepted: 06 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hu, Zhang, Gao, Yang, Dong, Cheng, Liang, Yang, Zhang and Yin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yanbin Yin, yyin@unl.edu
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