Major structural differences and novel potential virulence mechanisms from the genomes of multiple campylobacter species.
Sequencing and comparative genome analysis of four strains of Campylobacter including C. lari RM2100, C. upsaliensis RM3195, and C. coli RM2228 has revealed major structural differences that are associated with the insertion of phage- and plasmid-like genomic islands, as well as major variations in the lipooligosaccharide complex. Poly G tracts are longer, are greater in number, and show greater variability in C. upsaliensis than in the other species. Many genes involved in host colonization, including racR/S, cadF, cdt, ciaB, and flagellin genes, are conserved across the species, but variations that appear to be species specific are evident for a lipooligosaccharide locus, a capsular (extracellular) polysaccharide locus, and a novel Campylobacter putative licABCD virulence locus. The strains also vary in their metabolic profiles, as well as their resistance profiles to a range of antibiotics. It is evident that the newly identified hypothetical and conserved hypothetical proteins, as well as uncharacterized two-component regulatory systems and membrane proteins, may hold additional significant information on the major differences in virulence among the species, as well as the specificity of the strains for particular hosts.
Fouts
Derrick E
DE
The Institute for Genomic Research, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America. dfouts@tigr.org
Mongodin
Emmanuel F
EF
Mandrell
Robert E
RE
Miller
William G
WG
Rasko
David A
DA
Ravel
Jacques
J
Brinkac
Lauren M
LM
DeBoy
Robert T
RT
Parker
Craig T
CT
Daugherty
Sean C
SC
Dodson
Robert J
RJ
Durkin
A Scott
AS
Madupu
Ramana
R
Sullivan
Steven A
SA
Shetty
Jyoti U
JU
Ayodeji
Mobolanle A
MA
Shvartsbeyn
Alla
A
Schatz
Michael C
MC
Badger
Jonathan H
JH
Fraser
Claire M
CM
Nelson
Karen E
KE
D000818:Animals; D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D001715:Bird Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D001717:Birds; D002167:Campylobacter / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D016013:Likelihood Functions; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics*
D001426:Bacterial Proteins