title: Corynebacterium ulcerans 0102 carries the gene encoding diphtheria toxin on a prophage different from the C. diphtheriae NCTC 13129 prophage.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Corynebacterium ulcerans can cause a diphtheria-like illness, especially when the bacterium is lysogenized with a tox gene-carrying bacteriophage that produces diphtheria toxin. Acquisition of toxigenicity upon phage lysogenization is a common feature of C. ulcerans and C. diphtheriae. However, because of a lack of C. ulcerans genome information, a detailed comparison of prophages has not been possible between these two clinically important and closely related bacterial species.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We determined the whole genome sequence of the toxigenic C. ulcerans 0102 isolated in Japan. The genomic sequence showed a striking similarity with that of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis and, to a lesser extent, with that of C. diphtheriae. The 0102 genome contained three distinct prophages. One of these, ΦCULC0102-I, was a tox-positive prophage containing genes in the same structural order as for tox-positive C. diphtheriae prophages. However, the primary structures of the individual genes involved in the phage machinery showed little homology between the two counterparts.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Taken together, these results suggest that the tox-positive prophage in this strain of C. ulcerans has a distinct origin from that of C. diphtheriae NCTC 13129.
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Bacterial Genomics, Pathogen Genomics Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, 1-23-1 Toyama, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-8640, Japan.
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sekizuka
authors.forename: Akihiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Takako
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Komiya
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kenri
authors.forename: Fumihiko
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Takeuchi
authors.forename: Keigo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shibayama
authors.forename: Motohide
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takahashi
authors.forename: Makoto
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kuroda
authors.forename: Masaaki
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Iwaki
mesh_terms: D003352:Corynebacterium / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity / Q000502:physiology / Q000821:virology*; D003354:Corynebacterium Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004167:Diphtheria Toxin / Q000235:genetics*; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008242:Lysogeny; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D039002:Prophages / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004167:Diphtheria Toxin