Figure 1

Genome maps of the S. thermophilus LMD-9 chromosome and two cryptic plasmids, pSTER_A and pSTER_B. From the innermost towards the outermost circles of the chromosome map: Circle 1, COG functional classification of ORFs on the forward strand; Circle 2 (blue), ORFs on the forward strand; Circle 3 (red), ORFs on the reverse strand; Circle 4, COG functional classification of ORFs on the reverse strand; Circle 5 (salmon), GC skew; Circle 6 (green), GC composition (%); Circle 7, rRNAs and tRNAs, shown in brown and orange, respectively; Circle 8 (dark grey), pseudogenes; Circle 9, intact and truncated transposases, shown in red and green, respectively; Circle 10, key features encoded in the chromosome – urease gene cluster (blue), CRISPR regions (dark red), prophage remnant (yellow), eps and rgp clusters (fuchsia), gal-lac cluster (cyan) and blp cluster (green); Circle 11 (green), S. thermophilus- specific genes not present in S. salivarius SK126 draft genome; Circle 12 (red), LMD-9 specific genes or chromosomal regions not present in both CNRZ1066 and LMG 18311. Selected features within the unique regions are indicated. Genes encoding the Pep1357C cyclic peptide was previously identified by Ibrahim et al. [15]. Color designation for COG classification of ORFs in Circle 1 and 4 is shown at the bottom right legend.