title: Gene Loss and Lineage-Specific Restriction-Modification Systems Associated with Niche Differentiation in the Campylobacter jejuni Sequence Type 403 Clonal Complex.
abstract: Campylobacter jejuni is a highly diverse species of bacteria commonly associated with infectious intestinal disease of humans and zoonotic carriage in poultry, cattle, pigs, and other animals. The species contains a large number of distinct clonal complexes that vary from host generalist lineages commonly found in poultry, livestock, and human disease cases to host-adapted specialized lineages primarily associated with livestock or poultry. Here, we present novel data on the ST403 clonal complex of C. jejuni, a lineage that has not been reported in avian hosts. Our data show that the lineage exhibits a distinctive pattern of intralineage recombination that is accompanied by the presence of lineage-specific restriction-modification systems. Furthermore, we show that the ST403 complex has undergone gene decay at a number of loci. Our data provide a putative link between the lack of association with avian hosts of C. jejuni ST403 and both gene gain and gene loss through nonsense mutations in coding sequences of genes, resulting in pseudogene formation.
authors: Pathogen Research Group, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
authors: Laura
authors: L
authors: Morley
authors: Pathogen Research Group, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
authors: Alan
authors: A
authors: McNally
authors: Department of Biosciences, University of Exeter, Exeter, United Kingdom.
authors: Konrad
authors: K
authors: Paszkiewicz
authors: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors: Jukka
authors: J
authors: Corander
authors: College of Medicine, Institute of Life Science, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom.
authors: Guillaume
authors: G
authors: Méric
authors: College of Medicine, Institute of Life Science, Swansea University, Swansea, United Kingdom MRC CLIMB Consortium, Swansea University, Institute of Life Science, Swansea, United Kingdom Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom.
authors: Samuel K
authors: SK
authors: Sheppard
authors: Bioinformatics and Systems Biology, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany.
authors: Jochen
authors: J
authors: Blom
authors: Pathogen Research Group, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom georgina.manning@ntu.ac.uk.
authors: Georgina
authors: G
authors: Manning
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D016123:Campylobacter jejuni / Q000145:classification / Q000201:enzymology* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification; D018389:Codon, Nonsense; D015280:DNA Restriction-Modification Enzymes; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D017353:Gene Deletion; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D011200:Poultry / Q000382:microbiology; D011995:Recombination, Genetic
chemical_list: D018389:Codon, Nonsense; D015280:DNA Restriction-Modification Enzymes