Genetic diversity in the plasticity zone and the presence of the chlamydial plasmid differentiates Chlamydia pecorum strains from pigs, sheep, cattle, and koalas

Martina Jelocnik; Nathan Bachmann; Bernhard Kaltenboeck; Courtney Waugh; Lucy Woolford; K Natasha Speight; Amber Gillett; Damien P Higgins; Cheyne Flanagan; Garry S A Myers; Peter Timms; Adam Polkinghorne

doi:10.1186/s12864-015-2053-8

Back

Genetic diversity in the plasticity zone and the presence of the chlamydial plasmid differentiates Chlamydia pecorum strains from pigs, sheep, cattle, and koalas

Journal article

Open access

Peer reviewed

Genetic diversity in the plasticity zone and the presence of the chlamydial plasmid differentiates Chlamydia pecorum strains from pigs, sheep, cattle, and koalas

Martina Jelocnik, Nathan Bachmann, Bernhard Kaltenboeck, Courtney Waugh, Lucy Woolford, K Natasha Speight, Amber Gillett, Damien P Higgins, Cheyne Flanagan, Garry S A Myers, …

BMC Genomics, Vol.16, pp.1-14

2015

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-015-2053-8

Appears in UniSC Supported Open Access Outputs

Files and links (2)

pdf

PDF - Published Version (Open Access)1.64 MBDownload View

Published VersionCC BY V4.0, Open Access

url

https://doi.org/10.1186/s12864-015-2053-8View

Published Version

Abstract

C. pecorum plasmid

porcine hosts

C. pecorum comparative genomics

cytotoxin gene

phylogenetic relationships

Background: Chlamydia pecorum is a globally recognised pathogen of livestock and koalas. To date, comparative genomics of C. pecorum strains from sheep, cattle and koalas has revealed that only single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and a limited number of pseudogenes appear to contribute to the genetic diversity of thispathogen. No chlamydial plasmid has been detected in these strains despite its ubiquitous presence in almost all other chlamydial species. Genomic analyses have not previously included C. pecorum from porcine hosts. We sequenced the genome of three C. pecorum isolates from pigs with differing pathologies in order to re-evaluate the genetic differences and to update the phylogenetic relationships between C. pecorum from each of the hosts. Methods: Whole genome sequences for the three porcine C. pecorum isolates (L1, L17 and L71) were acquired using C. pecorum-specific sequence capture probes with culture-independent methods, and assembled in CLC Genomics Workbench. The pairwise comparative genomic analyses of 16 pig, sheep, cattle and koala C. pecorum genomes were performed using several bioinformatics platforms, while the phylogenetic analyses of the core C. pecorum genomes were performed with predicted recombination regions removed. Following the detection of a C. pecorum plasmid, a newly developed C. pecorum-specific plasmid PCR screening assay was used to evaluate the plasmid distribution in 227 C. pecorum samples from pig, sheep, cattle and koala hosts. Results: Three porcine C. pecorum genomes were sequenced using C. pecorum-specific sequence capture probes with culture-independent methods. Comparative genomics of the newly sequenced porcine C. pecorum genomes revealed an increased average number of SNP differences (~11 500) between porcine and sheep, cattle, and koala C. pecorum strains, compared to previous C. pecorum genome analyses. We also identified a third copy of the chlamydial cytotoxin gene, found only in porcine C. pecorum isolates. Phylogenetic analyses clustered porcine isolates into a distinct clade, highlighting the polyphyletic origin of C. pecorum in livestock. Most surprising, we also discovered a plasmid in the porcine C. pecorum genome. Using this novel C. pecorum plasmid (pCpec) sequence, a) we developed a pCpec screening assay to evaluate the plasmid distribution in C. pecorum from different hosts; and b) to characterise the pCpec sequences from available previously sequenced C. pecorum genome data. pCpec screening showed that the pCpec is common in all hosts of C. pecorum, however not all C. pecorum strains carry pCpec. Conclusions: This study provides further insight into the complexity of C. pecorum epidemiology and novel genomic regions that may be linked to host specificity. C. pecorum plasmid characterisation may aid in improving our understanding of C. pecorum pathogenesis across the variety of host species this animal pathogen infects.

Details

Title: Genetic diversity in the plasticity zone and the presence of the chlamydial plasmid differentiates Chlamydia pecorum strains from pigs, sheep, cattle, and koalas
Authors: Martina Jelocnik (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
Nathan Bachmann (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
Bernhard Kaltenboeck (Author) - Auburn University, United States
Courtney Waugh (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
Lucy Woolford (Author) - University of Adelaide
K Natasha Speight (Author) - University of Adelaide
Amber Gillett (Author) - Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital
Damien P Higgins (Author) - University of Sydney
Cheyne Flanagan (Author) - Port Macquarie Koala Hospital
Garry S A Myers (Author) - University of Maryland, United States
Peter Timms (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
Adam Polkinghorne (Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast - Faculty of Science, Health, Education and Engineering
Publication details: BMC Genomics, Vol.16, pp.1-14
Publisher: BioMed Central Ltd.
Date published: 2015
DOI: 10.1186/s12864-015-2053-8
ISSN: 1471-2164
Copyright note: Copyright © 2015 Jelocnik et al. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
Organisation Unit: School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Centre for Bioinnovation
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99449607202621
Output Type: Journal article

Metrics

51 File views/ downloads

1570 Record Views

44 Times Cited - Web of Science

InCites Highlights

These are selected metrics from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool, related to this output

Collaboration types: Domestic collaboration; International collaboration
Web Of Science research areas: Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology; Genetics & Heredity

UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This output has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

Source: InCites