A carregar...
Publicação
In silico scrutiny of genes revealing phylogenetic congruence with clinical prevalence or tropism properties of Chlamydia trachomatis strains
| Nome: | Descrição: | Tamanho: | Formato: | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.68 MB | Adobe PDF |
Orientador(es)
Resumo(s)
Microbes possess a multiplicity of virulence factors that confer them the ability to specifically
infect distinct biological niches. Contrary to what is known for other bacteria, for the obligate intracellular
human pathogen Chlamydia trachomatis, the knowledge of the molecular basis underlying serovars’ tissue
specificity is scarce. We examined all ~900 genes to evaluate the association between individual phylogenies
and cell-appetence or ecological success of C. trachomatis strains. Only ~1% of the genes presented a tree
topology showing the segregation of all three disease groups (ocular, urogenital, and lymphatic) into three wellsupported
clades. Approximately 28% of the genes, which include the majority of the genes encoding putative
type III secretion system effectors and Inc proteins, present a phylogenetic tree where only lymphogranuloma
venereum strains form a clade. Similarly, an exclusive phylogenetic segregation of the most prevalent genital
serovars was observed for 61 proteins. Curiously, these serovars are phylogenetically cosegregated with the
lymphogranuloma venereum serovars for ~20% of the genes. Some clade-specific pseudogenes were identified
(novel findings include the conserved hypothetical protein CT037 and the predicted a-hemolysin CT473),
suggesting their putative expendability for the infection of particular niches. Approximately 3.5% of the genes
revealed a significant overrepresentation of nonsynonymous mutations, and the majority encode proteins that
directly interact with the host. Overall, this in silico scrutiny of genes whose phylogeny is congruent with clinical
prevalence or tissue specificity of C. trachomatis strains may constitute an important database of putative targets
for future functional studies to evaluate their biological role in chlamydial infections.
Descrição
Palavras-chave
Chlamydia Trachomatis Phylogeny Tropism Infecções Sexualmente Transmissíveis
Contexto Educativo
Citação
G3 (Bethesda). 2014 Nov 5;5(1):9-19. doi: 10.1534/g3.114.015354
Editora
Genetics Society of America