Abstract
Some species of the genus Brevibacterium are orange bacteria involved in cheese ripening, synthesis of odoriferous compounds, and carotenoids with aromatic end groups. Here, we report the genome sequence of Brevibacterium sp. XU54, isolated from radioactive soil in Xinjiang, China. The genome of XU54 consists of 4,899,099 base pairs with a GC content of 62.2%. The genome sequence was annotated with 4453 genes, encoding 4260 proteins, 13 rRNAs, and 49 tRNAs. 16S rRNA BLAST and comparative genomic analysis both indicated that XU54 may be a new species of Brevibacterium. In addition, compared to the type strains, some enzymes related to sulfur metabolism showed a low similarity of 66.85, 79.53 and 14.61%, respectively. The carotenoids biosynthesis gene cluster was identified and analyzed according to the genomic data, which revealed relatively low identity (5-85%) with existing strains. The optimum conditions for its growth and carotenoid production were then discussed. The whole-genome sequence of Brevibacterium sp. XU54 will be beneficial for utilizing these newly identified genes in carotenoid biosynthesis and regulation of sulfur metabolism pathway to promote the production of novel carotenoids and other structurally diverse compounds through combinatorial biosynthesis, which facilitates cheese ripening and coloration. Supplementary information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13205-022-03366-1.