ABSTRACT
Recently, the genomes of two Mycoplasma fermentans strains, namely M64 and JER, have been completely sequenced. Gross comparison indicated that the genome of M64 is significantly bigger than the other strain and the difference is mainly contributed by the repetitive sequences including seven families of simple and complex transposable elements ranging from 973 to 23,778 bps. Analysis of these repeats resulted in the identification of a new distinct family of Integrative Conjugal Elements of M. fermentans, designated as ICEF-III. Using the concept of "reaction connectivity", the metabolic capabilities in M. fermentans manifested by the complete and partial connected biomodules were revealed. A comparison of the reported M. pulmonis, M. arthritidis, M. genitalium, B. subtilis, and E. coli essential genes and the genes predicted from the M64 genome indicated that more than 73% of the Mycoplasmas essential genes are preserved in M. fermentans. Further examination of the highly and partly connected reactions by a novel combinatorial phylogenetic tree, metabolic network, and essential gene analysis indicated that some of the pathways (e.g. purine and pyrimidine metabolisms) with partial connected reactions may be important for the conversions of intermediate metabolites. Taken together, in light of systems and network analyses, the diversity among the Mycoplasma species was manifested on the variations of their limited metabolic abilities during evolution.
Subject(s)
Biodiversity , Genome, Bacterial/genetics , Mycoplasma fermentans/genetics , Mycoplasma fermentans/metabolism , Base Sequence , Conserved Sequence , DNA Transposable Elements/genetics , DNA, Bacterial/genetics , Evolution, Molecular , Genes, Bacterial/genetics , Metabolic Networks and Pathways/genetics , Molecular Sequence Data , Phylogeny , Species SpecificityABSTRACT
Mycoplasma fermentans is a microorganism commonly found in the genitourinary and respiratory tracts of healthy individuals and AIDS patients. The complete genome of the repetitive-sequence-rich M. fermentans strain M64 is reported here. Comparative genomics analysis revealed dramatic differences in genome size between this strain and the recently completely sequenced JER strain.
Subject(s)
Mycoplasma fermentans/classification , Mycoplasma fermentans/genetics , Genome, Bacterial , Molecular Sequence DataABSTRACT
A field survey was conducted to investigate the presence of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato (s.l.) in six counties of Taiwan. Spirochetes were successfully isolated from one rodent ear sample out of 485 rodent ears and 53 live, fed tick (Ixodes granulatus) samples. The spirochetes were confirmed to be B. burgdorferi s.l. by real-time PCR. In addition, 23 of 113 tick samples were tested positive for Borrelia DNA according to real-time PCR. The Borrelia isolate from the rodent and the 23 Borrelia DNA samples from the ticks were identified as B. valaisiana-related genospecies by phylogenetic analysis based on flagellin gene sequences. These findings suggest that the Borrelia valaisiana-related strains are maintained in a zoonotic cycle between tick vectors and reservoir hosts in Taiwan.
