Data for: "The draft genome of Mycobacterium aurum, a potential model organism for investigating drugs against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae"

Mycobacterium aurum is an environmental mycobacteria that has previously been used in studies of anti-mycobacterial drugs due to its fast growth rate and low pathogenicity. We have sequenced and assembled the M. aurum genome into 46 contigs, with a total length of 6.02Mb containing 5,684 annotated protein-coding genes. A phylogenetic analysis using whole genome alignments positioned M. aurum close to M. vaccae and M. vanbaalenii, within a clade related to fast-growing mycobacteria. Large-scale genomic rearrangements were identified by comparing the M. aurum genome to those of M. tuberculosis and M. leprae. M. aurum orthologous genes implicated in resistance to anti-tuberculosis drugs in M. tuberculosis were observed. The sequence identity at the DNA level varied from 68.6% for pncA (pyrazinamide drug-related) to 96.2% for rrs (streptomycin, capreomycin). We observed two homologous genes encoding the catalase-peroxidase enzyme (katG) that is associated with resistance to isoniazid. Similarly, two embB homologues were identified in the M. aurum genome. In addition to describing for the first time the genome of M. aurum this work provides a resource to aid the use of M. aurum in studies to develop improved drugs for the pathogenic mycobacteria M. tuberculosis and M. leprae.

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