Draft genome of Kocuria polaris CMS 76orT isolated from cyanobacterial mats, McMurdo Dry Valley, Antarctica: an insight into CspA family of proteins from Kocuria polaris CMS 76orT

Kocuria polaris strain CMS 76orᵀ is a gram-positive, orange-pigmented bacterium isolated from a cyanobacterial mat sample from a pond located in McMurdo Dry Valley, Antarctica. It is psychrotolerant, orange pigmented, hydrolyses starch and Tween 80 and reduces nitrate. We report the 3.78-Mb genome of K. polaris strain CMS 76orᵀ, containing 3416 coding sequences, including one each for 5S rRNA, 23S rRNA, 16S rRNA and 47 tRNA genes, and the G+C content of DNA is 72.8 %. An investigation of Csp family of proteins from K. polaris strain CMS 76orᵀ indicated that it contains three different proteins of CspA (peg.319, peg.2255 and 2832) and the length varied from 67 to 69 amino acids. The three different proteins contain all the signature amino acids and two RNA binding regions that are characteristic of CspA proteins. Further, the CspA from K. polaris strain CMS 76orᵀ was different from CspA of four other species of the genus Kocuria, Cryobacterium roopkundense and E. coli indirectly suggesting the role of CspA of K. polaris strain CMS 76orᵀ in psychrotolerant growth of the bacterium.