McBride, Alan, Cerqueira, Gustavo, Suchard, Mark, Moreira, Angela, Zuerner, Richard, Reis, Mitermayer, Haake, David, Ko, Albert, and Dellagostin, Odir (2009) Genetic diversity of the Leptospiral immunoglobulin-like (Lig) genes in pathogenic Leptospira spp. Infection, Genetics and Evolution, 9. pp. 196-205.

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Abstract

Recent serologic, immunoprotection, and pathogenesis studies identified the Lig proteins as key virulence determinants in interactions of leptospiral pathogens with the mammalian host. We examined the sequence variation and recombination patterns of ligA, ligB, and ligC among 10 pathogenic strains from five Leptospira species. All strains were found to have intact ligB genes and genetic drift accounting for most of the ligB genetic diversity observed. The ligA gene was found exclusively in L. interrogans and L. kirschneri strains, and was created from ligB by a two-step partial gene duplication process. The aminoterminal domain of LigB and the LigA paralog were essentially identical (98.5+/-0.8% mean identity) in strains with both genes. Like ligB, ligC gene variation also followed phylogenetic patterns, suggesting an early gene duplication event. However, ligC is a pseudogene in several strains, suggesting that LigC is not essential for virulence. Two ligB genes and one ligC gene had mosaic compositions and evidence for recombination events between related Leptospira species was also found for some ligA genes. In conclusion, the results presented here indicate that Lig diversity has important ramifications for the selection of Lig polypeptides for use in diagnosis and as vaccine candidates. This sequence information will aid the identification of highly conserved regions within the Lig proteins and improve upon the performance characteristics of the Lig proteins in diagnostic assays and in subunit vaccine formulations with the potential to confer heterologous protection.

Item ID:	37428
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1567-7257
Funders:	Bio-Manguinhos, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (OCF), Brazilian Ministry of Health (BMH), Brazilian National Research Foundation (CNPq)
Projects and Grants:	BMH grant 09224-7, CPNq grant 1.06.0298.00, CPNq grant 3773/2005, CPNq grant 420067/2005, CPNq grant 554788/2006, CPNq grant 473006/2006-5
Date Deposited:	19 Mar 2015 01:38
FoR Codes:	06 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 0605 Microbiology > 060503 Microbial Genetics @ 50% 06 BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES > 0605 Microbiology > 060502 Infectious Agents @ 50%
SEO Codes:	97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970106 Expanding Knowledge in the Biological Sciences @ 100%
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