Mosaic structure of pathogenicity islands in Legionella pneumophila

  • Kwan Soo Ko
  • , Hae Kyung Lee
  • , Mi Yeoun Park
  • , Yoon Hoh Kook

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A gene complex, dot/icm, located in two independent chromosomal loci of L. pneumophila, the causative agent of Legionnaires' disease, is related to virulence. To investigate the evolutionary pattern of these pathogenicity islands of L. pneumophila, portions of four genes in the dot/icm complex, namely, dotA, dotB, icmB, and icmT, were amplified, sequenced, and phylogenetically analyzed, in addition to rpoB, which encodes an RNA polymerase β-subunit. The nucleotide sequences and phylogenetic analyses of these tive genes of 96 L. pneumophila strains revealed that several subgroups of L. pneumophila proliferated clonally. However, incongruent gene tree topologies and the results of statistical testing (Templeton Willcoxon signed-ranked and incongruence length differences tests) indicated that the evolutionary histories of these genes within the pathogenicity islands are not uniform, and that they constitute a mosaic structure. In addition, the non-uniform grouping of some reference strains suggests that intraspecific recombination might be still occurring in nature or in the laboratory.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)63-72
Number of pages10
JournalJournal of Molecular Evolution
Volume57
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jul 2003
Externally publishedYes

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

  1. SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being
    SDG 3 Good Health and Well-being

Keywords

  • dot/icm
  • Legionella pneumophila
  • Molecular evolution
  • Mosaic structure
  • Recombination

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