Genomic characterization of the Yersinia genus

Abstract

Comparative Yersinia genomics identifies features responsible for the colonization of specific host habitats and the horizontal transfer of virulence determinants.

Evolutionary Dynamics of the Yersinia enterocolitica Complex

“…However the tad operon is actually part of the core genome being found at the same locus in all isolates including the non-pathogenic BT 1A strain. The presence of the tad operon was also confirmed for the environmental species (Chen, et al, 2010), therefore this cluster is probably ancestral. The same is true of other functions known to be important for virulence including inv encoding invasion, its regulator RovA and the myf fibrillar operon (Badger and Miller, 1998;Ellison, Lawrence and Miller, 2004;Iriarte and Cornelis, 1995).…”

“…ruckeri was also found to be deficient in cobalamin biosynthesis and tetrathionate respiration (Chen, et al, 2010). These could potentially be pathways essential in environmental survival and which are lost upon host adaptation due to maintenance cost.…”

“…It is also becoming clear that some pathogenicity markers or islands that were thought to provide survival advantages under host infection conditions are in fact also present in environmental isolates and non-pathogenic BT 1A strains (Grant, Bennet-Wood and Robins-Browne, 1998;Chen, et al, 2010). Some genes identified on the basis of essentiality in infection are housekeeping genes rather than specific virulence factors, therefore only genes involved in specific steps of the infection process are reviewed here.…”

“…So far, nothing is known about the genetic organization and location of the Oantigen operons in the environmental Yersiniae, but it has been suggested that the outer core is also present in the environmental species . A quick search on the published genomes (Chen, et al, 2010) (Samuel and Reeves, 2003;Skurnik and Bengoechea, 2003). (Portnoy, Moseley and Falkow, 1981;Heesemann, et al, 1983;Portnoy, et al, 1984;Kapperud and Nesbakken, 1987;Fukushima, Gomyoda, Aleksic and Tsubokura, 1993).…”

Host Specificity of Bacterial Pathogens

“…The specialist Y. ruckeri has the smallest genome of any Yersinia species, although this does not appear to be a result of reductive evolution, as its genome contains relatively few pseudogenes. Both Y. pestis and Y. ruckeri lack genes for urease, vitamin B12 metabolism, and the methionine salvage pathway, perhaps because these pathogens do not colonize the mammalian intestine (Chen et al 2010) Betancor et al 2012). The pigeonassociated S. Typhimurium DT2 strain 94-213 has 84 pseudogenes, including 21 loci that are intact in other closely related S. Typhimurium strains, and shows distinctive patterns of gene expression (Kingsley et al 2013).…”