title: Major structural differences and novel potential virulence mechanisms from the genomes of multiple campylobacter species.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: The Institute for Genomic Research, Rockville, Maryland, United States of America. dfouts@tigr.org
authors.forename: Derrick E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Fouts
authors.forename: Emmanuel F
authors.initials: EF
authors.lastname: Mongodin
authors.forename: Robert E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Mandrell
authors.forename: William G
authors.initials: WG
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: David A
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Rasko
authors.forename: Jacques
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ravel
authors.forename: Lauren M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Brinkac
authors.forename: Robert T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: DeBoy
authors.forename: Craig T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: Sean C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Daugherty
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Dodson
authors.forename: A Scott
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Durkin
authors.forename: Ramana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Madupu
authors.forename: Steven A
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Sullivan
authors.forename: Jyoti U
authors.initials: JU
authors.lastname: Shetty
authors.forename: Mobolanle A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Ayodeji
authors.forename: Alla
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shvartsbeyn
authors.forename: Michael C
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Schatz
authors.forename: Jonathan H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Badger
authors.forename: Claire M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Fraser
authors.forename: Karen E
authors.initials: KE
authors.lastname: Nelson
mesh_terms: 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*
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins