This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Tu, Z.-C.
Right arrow Articles by Blaser, M. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Tu, Z.-C.
Right arrow Articles by Blaser, M. J.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Infection and Immunity, April 2001, p. 2237-2244, Vol. 69, No. 4
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.4.2237-2244.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Evidence that the Campylobacter fetus sap Locus Is an Ancient Genomic Constituent with Origins before Mammals and Reptiles Diverged

Zheng-Chao Tu,1 Floyd E. Dewhirst,2 and Martin J. Blaser1,3,*

Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine,1 and Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center,3 Nashville, Tennessee, and Department of Molecular Genetics, The Forsyth Institute, Boston, Massachusetts2

Received 11 September 2000/Returned for modification 11 December 2000/Accepted 29 December 2000

Campylobacter fetus bacteria, isolated from both mammals and reptiles, may be either subsp. fetus or subsp. venerealis and either serotype A or serotype B. Surface layer proteins, expressed and secreted by genes in the sap locus, play an important role in C. fetus virulence. To assess whether the sap locus represents a pathogenicity island and to gain further insights into C. fetus evolution, we examined several C. fetus genes in 18 isolates. All of the isolates had 5 to 9 sapA or sapB homologs. One strain (85-387) possessed both sapA and sapB homologs, suggesting a recombinational event in the sap locus between sapA and sapB strains. When we amplified and analyzed nucleotide sequences from portions of housekeeping gene recA (501 bp) and sapD (450 bp), a part of the 6-kb sap invertible element, the phylogenies of the genes were highly parallel. Among the 15 isolates from mammals, serotype A and serotype B strains generally had consistent positions. The fact that the serotype A C. fetus subsp. fetus and subsp. venerealis strains were on the same branch suggests that their differentiation occurred after the type A-type B split. Isolates from mammals and reptiles formed two distinct tight phylogenetic clusters that were well separated. Sequence analysis of 16S rRNA showed that the reptile strains form a distinct phylotype between mammalian C. fetus and Campylobacter hyointestinalis. The phylogenies and sequence results showing that sapD and recA have similar G + C contents and substitution rates suggest that the sap locus is not a pathogenicity island but rather is an ancient constituent of the C. fetus genome, integral to its biology.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Medicine, New York University School of Medicine, 550 First Ave., New York, NY 10016. Phone: (212) 263-6394. Fax: (212) 263-7700. E-mail: martin.blaser{at}med.nyu.edu.

Infection and Immunity, April 2001, p. 2237-2244, Vol. 69, No. 4
0019-9567/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/IAI.69.4.2237-2244.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Wilson, D. J., Gabriel, E., Leatherbarrow, A. J.H., Cheesbrough, J., Gee, S., Bolton, E., Fox, A., Hart, C. A., Diggle, P. J., Fearnhead, P. (2009). Rapid Evolution and the Importance of Recombination to the Gastroenteric Pathogen Campylobacter jejuni. Mol Biol Evol 26: 385-397 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Kienesberger, S., Gorkiewicz, G., Joainig, M. M., Scheicher, S. R., Leitner, E., Zechner, E. L. (2007). Development of Experimental Genetic Tools for Campylobacter fetus. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 73: 4619-4630 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Kempf, I., Dufour-Gesbert, F., Hellard, G., Prouzet-Mauleon, V., Megraud, F. (2006). Broilers do not play a dominant role in the Campylobacter fetus contamination of humans.. J Med Microbiol 55: 1277-1278 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • van Bergen, M. A. P., Dingle, K. E., Maiden, M. C. J., Newell, D. G., van der Graaf-Van Bloois, L., van Putten, J. P. M., Wagenaar, J. A. (2005). Clonal Nature of Campylobacter fetus as Defined by Multilocus Sequence Typing. J. Clin. Microbiol. 43: 5888-5898 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Tu, Z.-C., Eisner, W., Kreiswirth, B. N., Blaser, M. J. (2005). Genetic Divergence of Campylobacter fetus Strains of Mammal and Reptile Origins. J. Clin. Microbiol. 43: 3334-3340 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Tu, Z.-C., Zeitlin, G., Gagner, J.-P., Keo, T., Hanna, B. A., Blaser, M. J. (2004). Campylobacter fetus of Reptile Origin as a Human Pathogen. J. Clin. Microbiol. 42: 4405-4407 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Tu, Z.-C., Hui, J., Blaser, M. J. (2004). Conservation and Diversity of sap Homologues and Their Organization among Campylobacter fetus Isolates. Infect. Immun. 72: 1715-1724 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Tu, Z.-C., Ray, K. C., Thompson, S. A., Blaser, M. J. (2001). Campylobacter fetus Uses Multiple Loci for DNA Inversion within the 5' Conserved Regions of sap Homologs. J. Bacteriol. 183: 6654-6661 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»