Hybrid genome assemblies of Bacteroidota isolates uncover mobile genetic elements, antimicrobial resistance genes, and novel antimicrobial peptides.

Hybrid Illumina–Oxford Nanopore assemblies of 18 Bacteroidales Bacteroidota isolates yielded 2 fully closed, single-contig chromosomes with completeness 99.6%–100% and contamination <2%.

• Why it matters: Complete Bacteroidota genomes are hard to reconstruct because repeats and mobile elements fragment assemblies, which can mask plasmids, antimicrobial resistance, and bioactive peptides relevant to probiotic safety and discovery.
• What they did: The authors sequenced 18 strains from mouse ceca, human feces, and tortoise stool using both platforms, then applied a specialized hybrid assembly workflow and machine-learning peptide mining.
• The result: They detected 12 circular plasmids across 10 isolates (including two isolates with two plasmids each), experimentally confirmed 7 plasmids, and verified two predicted antimicrobial peptides.

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