title: Evolution of transcription regulatory genes is linked to niche specialization in the bacterial pathogen Streptococcus pyogenes.
abstract: Streptococcus pyogenes is a highly prevalent bacterial pathogen, most often giving rise to superficial infections at the throat or skin of its human host. Three genotype-defined subpopulations of strains exhibiting strong tropisms for either the throat or skin (specialists) or having no obvious tissue site preference (generalists) are recognized. Since the microenvironments at the throat and skin are distinct, the signal transduction pathways leading to the control of gene expression may also differ for throat versus skin strains of S. pyogenes. Two loci (mga and rofA/nra) encoding global regulators of virulence gene expression are positioned 300 kb apart on the genome; each contains alleles forming two major sequence clusters of approximately 25 to 30% divergence that are under balancing selection. Strong linkage disequilibrium is observed between sequence clusters of the transcription regulatory loci and the subpopulations of throat and skin specialists, against a background of high recombination rates among housekeeping genes. A taxonomically distinct commensal species (Streptococcus dysgalactiae subspecies equisimilus) shares highly homologous rof alleles. The findings provide strong support for a mechanism underlying niche specialization that involves orthologous replacement of regulatory genes following interspecies horizontal transfer, although the directionality of gene exchange remains unknown.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology and Immunology, New York Medical College, Valhalla, New York 10595, USA. debra_bessen@nymc.edu
authors.forename: Debra E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Bessen
authors.forename: Anand
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Manoharan
authors.forename: Feng
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Wertz
authors.forename: D Ashley
authors.initials: DA
authors.lastname: Robinson
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005809:Genes, Regulator; D008040:Genetic Linkage; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010614:Pharynx / Q000382:microbiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D012641:Selection, Genetic; D015398:Signal Transduction; D012867:Skin / Q000382:microbiology; D013297:Streptococcus pyogenes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000472:pathogenicity; D015534:Trans-Activators / Q000235:genetics; D014157:Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000502:physiology*; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins; C119954:Nra protein, Streptococcus pyogenes; D015534:Trans-Activators; D014157:Transcription Factors; C087448:rofA protein, Streptococcus