Genome sequence and analysis of Escherichia coli production strain LS5218

Escherichia coli strain LS5218 is a useful host for the production of fatty acid derived products, but the genetics underlying this utility have not been fully investigated. Here, we report the genome sequence of LS5218 and a list of large mutations and single nucleotide permutations (SNPs) relative to E. coli K-12 strain MG1655. We discuss how genetic differences may affect the physiological differences between LS5218 and MG1655. We find that LS5218 is more closely related to E. coli strain NCM3722 and suspect that small genetic differences between K-12 derived strains may have a significant impact on metabolic engineering efforts.