title: The Cipher Code of Simple Sequence Repeats in "Vampire Pathogens".
abstract: Blood inside mammals is a forbidden area for the majority of prokaryotic microbes; however, red blood cells tropism microbes, like "vampire pathogens" (VP), succeed in matching scarce nutrients and surviving strong immunity reactions. Here, we found VP of Mycoplasma, Rhizobiales, and Rickettsiales showed significantly higher counts of (AG)n dimeric simple sequence repeats (Di-SSRs) in the genomes, coding and non-coding regions than non Vampire Pathogens (N_VP). Regression analysis indicated a significant correlation between GC content and the span of (AG)n-Di-SSR variation. Gene Ontology (GO) terms with abundance of (AG)3-Di-SSRs shared by the VP strains were associated with purine nucleotide metabolism (FDR < 0.01), indicating an adaptation to the limited availability of purine and nucleotide precursors in blood. Di-amino acids coded by (AG)n-Di-SSRs included all three six-fold code amino acids (Arg, Leu and Ser) and significantly higher counts of Di-amino acids coded by (AG)3, (GA)3, and (TC)3 in VP than N_VP. Furthermore, significant differences (P < 0.001) on the numbers of triplexes formed from (AG)n-Di-SSRs between VP and N_VP in Mycoplasma suggested the potential role of (AG)n-Di-SSRs in gene regulation.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: Geng
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), UAB-IRTA, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain.
authors.forename: Bernardo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bello-Orti
authors.affiliation: 1] Centre de Recerca en Sanitat Animal (CReSA), UAB-IRTA, Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193 Bellaterra, Spain [2] Institut de Recercai Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Aragon
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Medicine, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Alexander W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Tucker
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: Pinxing
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: Dingren
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bi
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.
authors.forename: Hui
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Jin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004912:Erythrocytes / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000469:parasitology; D008322:Mammals / Q000382:microbiology*