Prediction of whole-genome DNA G + C content within the genus Aeromonas based on housekeeping gene sequences

Different methods are available to determine the G + C content (e.g. thermal denaturation temperature or high performance liquid chromatography, HPLC), but obtained values may differ significantly between strains, as well as between laboratories. Recently, several authors have demonstrated that the genomic DNA G + C content of prokaryotes can be reliably estimated from one or several protein coding gene nucleotide sequences. Few G + C content values have been published for the Aeromonas species described and the data, when available, are often incomplete or provide only a range of values. Our aim in this current work was twofold. First, the genomic G + C content of the type or reference strains of all species and subspecies of the genus Aeromonas was determined with a traditional experimental method in the same laboratory. Second, we wanted to see if the sequence-based method to estimate the G + C content described by Fournier et al. [7] could be applied to determine the G + C content of the different species of Aeromonas from the sequences of the genes used in taxonomy or phylogeny for this genus.