Genome of the facultative scuticociliatosis pathogen Pseudocohnilembus persalinus provides insight into its virulence through horizontal gene transfer.
Certain ciliates of the subclass Scuticociliatia (scuticociliates) are facultative parasites of fishes in which they cause a suite of diseases collectively termed scuticociliatosis. Hitherto, comparatively little was known about genetics and genomics of scuticociliates or the mechanism of scuticociliatosis. In this study, a laboratory culture of the facultatively pathogenic scuticociliate Pseudocohnilembus persalinus was established and its genome sequenced, giving the first genome of a marine ciliate. Genome-wide horizontal gene transfer (HGT) analysis showed P. persalinus has acquired many unique prokaryote-derived genes that potentially contribute to the virulence of this organism, including cell adhesion, hemolysis and heme utilization genes. These findings give new insights into our understanding of the pathology of scuticociliates.
Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China.
Jie
J
Xiong
Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Guangying
G
Wang
Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China.|Guangdong Ocean University, Zhanjiang 524088, China.
Jun
J
Cheng
Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Miao
M
Tian
Lab of Protozoology, Department of Biology, College of Life Science and Technology, Harbin Normal University, Harbin 150025, China.
Xuming
X
Pan
Department of Life Sciences, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, United Kingdom.
Alan
A
Warren
Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
Chuanqi
C
Jiang
Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China.
Dongxia
D
Yuan
Key Laboratory of Aquatic Biodiversity and Conservation, Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430072, China.
Wei
W
Miao
D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D002448:Cell Adhesion / Q000235:genetics; D005432:Flounder / Q000469:parasitology; D022761:Gene Transfer, Horizontal; D016678:Genome; D058977:Molecular Sequence Annotation; D016802:Oligohymenophorea / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA