Burkholderia vs. C.elegans
The SCBI story (by Feseha)
SCBI stands for Serratia Ceanorhabditis briggsae Isolate: A tentative name for a bacterium that was isolated from a Galleria mellonella trapped C. briggsae worms which apparently killed the trap and hence showed the tell tell sign of an entomopathogenic partnership like the ones documented for the Xenorhabdus-Steinernematidae and Photorhabdus-Heterorhabditidae insecticidal partnerships and was shown to be a member of the Genus Serratia by16S rDNA sequence comparison.
Work in at UNH Genome Center has confirmed that the bacterium is indeed capable of rapid killing of Galleria larvae both by direct injection as well as by carriage with C. elegans and C. briggsae. Following this demonstrations, we have produced a draft genomic sequence by 454 technology and comparative analysis of the genome against the two already completed Serratia genomic sequences -S. marcescens DB11 (SANGER, EBI) and S. proteamaculans (DOE, JGI) and the established entomopathogenic bacterium -P. luminescens TT01 (Pasteur)- is currently underway.
