title: Recombination and mutation during long-term gastric colonization by Helicobacter pylori: estimates of clock rates, recombination size, and minimal age.
abstract: The bacterium Helicobacter pylori colonizes the gastric mucosa of half of the human population, resulting in chronic gastritis, ulcers, and cancer. We sequenced ten gene fragments from pairs of strains isolated sequentially at a mean interval of 1.8 years from 26 individuals. Several isolates had acquired small mosaic segments from other H. pylori or point mutations. The maximal mutation rate, the import size, and the frequency of recombination were calculated by using a Bayesian model. The calculations indicate that the last common ancestor of H. pylori existed at least 2,500-11,000 years ago. Imported mosaics have a median size of 417 bp, much smaller than for other bacteria, and recombination occurs frequently (60 imports spanning 25,000 bp per genome per year). Thus, the panmictic population structure of H. pylori results from very frequent recombination during mixed colonization by unrelated strains.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck Institut für Infektionsbiologie, Schumannstrasse 21/22, 10117 Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Falush
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kraft
authors.forename: N S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Taylor
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Correa
authors.forename: J G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Fox
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Achtman
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Suerbaum
mesh_terms: D001499:Bayes Theorem; D005753:Gastric Mucosa / Q000382:microbiology*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000235:genetics* / Q000254:growth & development / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D011995:Recombination, Genetic