Abstract
The bacterial genus Bartonella comprises 21 pathogens causing characteristic intraerythrocytic infections. Bartonella bacilliformis is a severe pathogen representing an ancestral lineage, whereas the other species are benign pathogens that evolved by radial speciation. Here, we have used comparative and functional genomics to infer pathogenicity genes specific to the radiating lineage, and we suggest that these genes may have facilitated adaptation to the host environment. We determined the complete genome sequence of Bartonella tribocorum by shotgun sequencing and functionally identified 97 pathogenicity genes by signature-tagged mutagenesis. Eighty-one pathogenicity genes belong to the core genome (1,097 genes) of the radiating lineage inferred from genome comparison of B. tribocorum, Bartonella henselae and Bartonella quintana. Sixty-six pathogenicity genes are present in B. bacilliformis, and one has been lost by deletion. The 14 pathogenicity genes specific for the radiating lineage encode two laterally acquired type IV secretion systems, suggesting that these systems have a role in host adaptability.
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Acknowledgements
We thank E.J. Rubin for providing plasmids containing the Himar1 transposon and transposase. We acknowledge the use of the MIGenAS system and excellent support by MiGenAS team members, especially M. Rampp. We thank G. Schroeder for critical reading of the manuscript. This work was supported by grant 3100A0-109925/1 from the Swiss National Science Foundation (C.D.), by grant 55005501 from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (C.D.), by a generous donation from the Freiwillige Akademische Gesellschaft Basel (C.D.) and by the Center for Systems Bacterial Infection (C-SBI) of SystemsX, the Swiss Initiative in Systems Biology.
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C.D., H.L.S., P.E. and S.C.S. designed the research; H.L.S., P.E., M.C.S., M.V.-T. and C.L. performed research; R.B. contributed analytical tools and materials; H.L.S., P.E., G.R., S.C.S. and C.D. analyzed data; and H.L.S., P.E. and C.D. wrote the paper.
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Saenz, H., Engel, P., Stoeckli, M. et al. Genomic analysis of Bartonella identifies type IV secretion systems as host adaptability factors. Nat Genet 39, 1469–1476 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2007.38
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2007.38
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