title: Evolutionary study of Yersinia genomes deciphers emergence of human pathogenic species.
abstract: On record, there are 17 species in the Yersinia genus, of which three are known to be pathogenic to human. While the chromosomal and pYV (or pCD1) plasmid-borne virulence genes as well as pathogenesis of these three species are well studied, their genomic evolution is poorly understood. Our study aims to predict the key evolutionary events that led to the emergence of pathogenic Yersinia species by analyzing gene gain-and-loss, virulence genes, and "Clustered regularly-interspaced short palindromic repeats". Our results suggest that the most recent ancestor shared by the human pathogenic Yersinia was most probably an environmental species that had adapted to the human body. This might have led to ecological specialization that diverged Yersinia into ecotypes and distinct lineages based on differential gene gain-and-loss in different niches. Our data also suggest that Y. pseudotuberculosis group might be the donor of the ail virulence gene to Y. enterocolitica. Hence, we postulate that evolution of human pathogenic Yersinia might not be totally in parallel, but instead, there were lateral gene transfer events. Furthermore, the presence of virulence genes seems to be important for the positive selection of virulence plasmid. Our studies provide better insights into the evolutionary biology of these bacteria.
authors: Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.|Genome Informatics Research Laboratory, High Impact Research Building, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors: Shi Yang
authors: SY
authors: Tan
authors: Institute of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors: Irene Kit Ping
authors: IK
authors: Tan
authors: Genome Informatics Research Laboratory, High Impact Research Building, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors: Mui Fern
authors: MF
authors: Tan
authors: Genome Informatics Research Laboratory, High Impact Research Building, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors: Avirup
authors: A
authors: Dutta
authors: Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.|Genome Informatics Research Laboratory, High Impact Research Building, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors: Siew Woh
authors: SW
authors: Choo
mesh_terms: D018829:Adhesins, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D064113:CRISPR-Cas Systems / Q000235:genetics; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D010802:Phylogeny; D010957:Plasmids / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D014774:Virulence / Q000235:genetics; D015007:Yersinia / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D015009:Yersinia Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000473:pathology
chemical_list: D018829:Adhesins, Bacterial; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins