Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis may be under anagenesis and biovar Equi forms biovar Ovis: a phylogenic inference from sequence and structural analysis. Issue 1 (December 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Oliveira, Alberto; Teixeira, Pammella; Azevedo, Marcela; Jamal, Syed; Tiwari, Sandeep; Almeida, Sintia; Silva, Artur; Barh, Debmalya; Dorneles, Elaine; Haas, Dionei; Heinemann, Marcos; Ghosh, Preetam; Lage, Andrey; Figueiredo, Henrique; Ferreira, Rafaela; Azevedo, Vasco
• Is Part Of: BMC microbiology. Volume 16:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 11
• Publication Date: 2016-12
• Subjects: Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis -- Evolution -- Molecular phylogeny -- Structural biology; Microbiology -- Periodicals; 579.05
• DOI: 10.1186/s12866-016-0717-4
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1471-2180

Abstract

Abstract Background Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis can be classified into two biovars orbiovars based on their nitrate-reducing ability. Strains isolated from sheep and goats show negative nitrate reduction and are termed biovar Ovis, while strains from horse and cattle exhibit positive nitrate reduction and are called biovar Equi. However, molecular evidence has not been established so far to understand this difference, specifically if theseC. pseudotuberculosis strains are under an evolutionary process. Results The ERIC 1 + 2 Minimum-spanning tree from 367 strains ofC. pseudotuberculosis showed that the great majority of biovar Ovis strains clustered together, but separately from biovar Equi strains that also clustered amongst themselves. Using evolutionarily conserved genes (rpoB, gapA, fusA, and rsmE ) and their corresponding amino acid sequences, we analyzed the phylogenetic relationship among eighteen strains ofC. pseudotuberculosis belonging to both biovars Ovis and Equi. Additionally, conserved point mutation based on structural variation analysis was also carried out to elucidate the genotype-phenotype correlations and speciation. We observed that the biovars are different at the molecular phylogenetic level and a probable anagenesis is occurring slowly within the speciesC. pseudotuberculosis. Conclusions Taken together the results suggest that biovar Equi is forming the biovar Ovis. However, additional analyses using other genes and other bacterial strains are required to further support our anagenesis hypothesis inC. pseudotuberculosis .