title: Virulence genes and neutral DNA markers of Helicobacter pylori isolates from different ethnic communities of West Bengal, India.
abstract: Virulence-associated genes and neutral DNA markers of Helicobacter pylori strains from the Santhal and Oroan ethnic minorities of West Bengal, India, were studied. These people have traditionally been quite separate from other Indians and differ culturally, genetically, and linguistically from mainstream Bengalis, whose H. pylori strains have been characterized previously. H. pylori was found in each of 49 study participants, although none had peptic ulcer disease, and was cultured from 31 of them. All strains carried the cag pathogenicity island and potentially toxigenic s1 alleles of vacuolating cytotoxin gene (vacA) and were resistant to at least 8 micro g of metronidazole per ml. DNA sequence motifs in vacA mid-region m1 alleles, cagA, and an informative insertion or deletion motif next to cagA from these strains were similar to those of strains from ethnic Bengalis. Three mobile elements, IS605, IS607, and ISHp608, were present in 29, 19, and 10%, respectively, of Santhal and Oroan strains, which is similar to their prevalence in Bengali H. pylori. Thus, there is no evidence that the gene pools of H. pylori of these ethnic minorities differ from those of Bengalis from the same region. This relatedness of strains from persons of different ethnicities bears on our understanding of H. pylori transmission between communities and genome evolution.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Beliaghata, Calcutta 700010, India.
authors.forename: Simanti
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Datta
authors.forename: Santanu
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chattopadhyay
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Balakrish Nair
authors.forename: Asish K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Mukhopadhyay
authors.forename: Jabaranjan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hembram
authors.forename: Douglas E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Berg
authors.forename: Dhira
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rani Saha
authors.forename: Asis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Amal
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Santra
authors.forename: S K
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Bhattacharya
authors.forename: Abhijit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chowdhury
mesh_terms: D000483:Alleles; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005006:Ethnicity; D005838:Genotype; D016481:Helicobacter Infections / Q000453:epidemiology*; D016480:Helicobacter pylori / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007194:India / Q000453:epidemiology; D016366:Open Reading Frames; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004269:DNA, Bacterial