title: Comparative genome analysis of Ureaplasma parvum clinical isolates.
abstract: Ureaplasma parvum colonizes human mucosal surfaces, primarily in the respiratory and urogenital tracts, causing a wide spectrum of diseases, from non-gonococcal urethritis to pneumonitis in immunocompromised hosts. Although the basis for these diverse clinical outcomes is not yet understood, more severe disease may be associated with strains harboring a certain set of strain-specific genes. To investigate this, whole genome DNA macroarrays were constructed and used to assess genomic diversity in 10 U. parvum clinical strains. We found that 7.6% of U. parvum genes were dispersed into one or more strains, thus defining a minimal functional core of 538 U. parvum genes. Most of the strain-specific genes (79%) were of unknown function and were unique to U. parvum. Four hypervariable plasticity regions were identified in the genome containing 93% of the variability in the gene pool (UU32-UU33, UU145-UU170, UU440-UU447 and UU527-UU529). We hypothesized that one of them (UU145-UU170) was a pathogenicity island in U. parvum and we characterized it. Thus, we propose that the clinical outcome of U. parvum infection is probably associated with this newly identified pathogenicity island.
authors.affiliation: Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Research Institute of Physicochemical Medicine, Federal Agency for Health and Social Development, Malaya Pirogovskaya 1A, Moscow 119992, Russian Federation. dhoroshun@gmail.com
authors.forename: Kuvat
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Momynaliev
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Klubin
authors.forename: Vera
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Chelysheva
authors.forename: Oksana
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Selezneva
authors.forename: Tatyana
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Akopian
authors.forename: Vadim
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Govorun
mesh_terms: D001426:Bacterial Proteins / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D044404:Genomic Islands / Q000235:genetics; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D014509:Ureaplasma / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity; D016869:Ureaplasma Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D014774:Virulence
chemical_list: D001426:Bacterial Proteins