Genome sequence of a serotype M28 strain of group a streptococcus: potential new insights into puerperal sepsis and bacterial disease specificity.
Puerperal sepsis, a major cause of death of young women in Europe in the 1800s, was due predominantly to the gram-positive pathogen group A Streptococcus. Studies conducted during past decades have shown that serotype M28 strains are the major group A Streptococcus organisms responsible for many of these infections. To begin to increase our understanding of their enrichment in puerperal sepsis, we sequenced the genome of a genetically representative strain. This strain has genes encoding a novel array of prophage virulence factors, cell-surface proteins, and other molecules likely to contribute to host-pathogen interactions. Importantly, genes for 7 inferred extracellular proteins are encoded by a 37.4-kb foreign DNA element that is shared with group B Streptococcus and is present in all serotype M28 strains. Proteins encoded by the 37.4-kb element were expressed extracellularly and in human infections. Acquisition of foreign genes has helped create a disease-specialist clone of this pathogen.
Green
Nicole M
NM
Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health, Hamilton, Montana, USA.
Zhang
Shizhen
S
Porcella
Stephen F
SF
Nagiec
Michal J
MJ
Barbian
Kent D
KD
Beres
Stephen B
SB
LeFebvre
Rance B
RB
Musser
James M
JM
D000942:Antigens, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D001483:Base Sequence; D015153:Blotting, Western; D002352:Carrier Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D039002:Prophages / Q000235:genetics; D011645:Puerperal Infection / Q000382:microbiology*; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D018805:Sepsis / Q000382:microbiology; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013290:Streptococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D013297:Streptococcus pyogenes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D037521:Virulence Factors
D000942:Antigens, Bacterial; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; D002352:Carrier Proteins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D011994:Recombinant Proteins; D037521:Virulence Factors; C014689:streptococcal M protein