Hinchliffe Stewart J, Isherwood Karen E, Stabler Richard A, Prentice Michael B, Rakin Alexander, Nichols Richard A, Oyston Petra C F, Hinds Jason, Titball Richard W, Wren Brendan W
The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, WC1E 7HT, UK.
Genome Res. 2003 Sep;13(9):2018-29. doi: 10.1101/gr.1507303.
Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, diverged from Yersinia pseudotuberculosis, an enteric pathogen, an estimated 1500-20,000 years ago. Genetic characterization of these closely related organisms represents a useful model to study the rapid emergence of bacterial pathogens that threaten mankind. To this end, we undertook genome-wide DNA microarray analysis of 22 strains of Y. pestis and 10 strains of Y. pseudotuberculosis of diverse origin. Eleven Y. pestis DNA loci were deemed absent or highly divergent in all strains of Y. pseudotuberculosis. Four were regions of phage origin, whereas the other seven included genes encoding a vitamin B12 receptor and the insect toxin sepC. Sixteen differences were identified between Y. pestis strains, with biovar Antiqua and Mediaevalis strains showing most divergence from the arrayed CO92 Orientalis strain. Fifty-eight Y. pestis regions were specific to a limited number of Y. pseudotuberculosis strains, including the high pathogenicity island, three putative autotransporters, and several possible insecticidal toxins and hemolysins. The O-antigen gene cluster and one of two possible flagellar operons had high levels of divergence between Y. pseudotuberculosis strains. This study reports chromosomal differences between species, biovars, serotypes, and strains of Y. pestis and Y. pseudotuberculosis that may relate to the evolution of these species in their respective niches.
鼠疫耶尔森菌是鼠疫的病原体，约在1500至20000年前从肠道病原体假结核耶尔森菌分化而来。对这些密切相关的生物体进行基因特征分析是研究威胁人类的细菌病原体快速出现的有用模型。为此，我们对22株不同来源的鼠疫耶尔森菌和10株假结核耶尔森菌进行了全基因组DNA微阵列分析。在所有假结核耶尔森菌菌株中，有11个鼠疫耶尔森菌DNA位点被认为不存在或高度分化。其中4个是噬菌体起源区域，而另外7个包括编码维生素B12受体和昆虫毒素sepC的基因。在鼠疫耶尔森菌菌株之间鉴定出16个差异，古代生物变种和中世纪生物变种菌株与排列的CO92东方生物变种菌株差异最大。58个鼠疫耶尔森菌区域是少数假结核耶尔森菌菌株特有的，包括高致病性岛、三种假定的自转运蛋白以及几种可能的杀虫毒素和溶血素。假结核耶尔森菌菌株之间的O抗原基因簇和两个可能的鞭毛操纵子之一具有高度差异。本研究报告了鼠疫耶尔森菌和假结核耶尔森菌在种、生物变种、血清型和菌株之间的染色体差异，这些差异可能与这些物种在各自生态位中的进化有关。
