title: Overrepresentation of immunostimulatory CpG motifs in Burkholderia genomes.
abstract: Pulmonary infections with Burkholderia cepacia complex organisms contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality in patients with cystic fibrosis (CF), partially due to the intense inflammatory response of the host to the presence of bacteria and their byproducts. In the present study we show that Burkholderia genomes contain a large number of immunostimulatory CpG motifs. This is mainly because of their large genome size. This suggests that DNA from Burkholderia sp. has the potential to cause significant inflammatory response. Whether this contributes significantly to the airway inflammation often observed in infected CF patients remains to be determined.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorium voor Farmaceutische, Microbiologie, Universiteit Gent, Belgium. Tom.Coenye@UGent.be
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Coenye
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vandamme
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D019121:Burkholderia Infections / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology*; D016956:Burkholderia cepacia / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism; D018899:CpG Islands / Q000235:genetics*; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000276:immunology / Q000382:microbiology*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D015226:Dinucleoside Phosphates / Q000235:genetics; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D066298:In Vitro Techniques; D051379:Mice; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D015226:Dinucleoside Phosphates; C015772:CpG dinucleotide