Abstract
Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis is a pathogenic bacterium which has been rapidly spreading all over the world, causing economic losses in the agricultural sector and sporadically infecting humans. Six C. pseudotuberculosis strains were isolated from goats, sheep, and horses with distinct abscess locations. For the first time, Mexican genomes of this bacterium were sequenced and studied in silico. All strains were sequenced using Ion Personal Genome Machine sequencer, assembled using Newbler and SPAdes software. The automatic genome annotation was done using the software RAST and in-house scripts for transference, followed by manual curation using Artemis software and BLAST against NCBI and UniProt databases. The six genomes are publicly available in NCBI database. The analysis of nucleotide sequence similarity and the generated phylogenetic tree led to the observation that the Mexican strains are more similar between strains from the same host, but the genetic structure is probably more influenced by transportation of animals between farms than host preference. Also, a putative drug target was predicted and in silico analysis of 46 strains showed two gene clusters capable of differentiating the biovars equi and ovis: Restriction Modification system and CRISPR-Cas cluster.
Highlights
Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis is a Gram-positive bacterium that infects several different species of mammals
Contamination occurs through contact with infected animals and consumption of infected food [4, 5, 7]
Six Mexican C. pseudotuberculosis strains were investigated, two from the biovar equi and four from the biovar ovis. This is the first time that strains of this bacterium, isolated in Mexico, have been completely sequenced
Summary
Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis is a Gram-positive bacterium that infects several different species of mammals. Six Mexican C. pseudotuberculosis strains were investigated, two from the biovar equi and four from the biovar ovis This is the first time that strains of this bacterium, isolated in Mexico, have been completely sequenced. The strain MEX29 was isolated from a retropharyngeal abscess in a sheep These four strains presented negative result for the presence of the narG gene in the PCR multiplex test and were classified as belonging to the biovar ovis. The present study presents the first sequencing of C. pseudotuberculosis, and the first isolation of the biovar equi, from Mexico. This data can provide new insights into the diagnosis and treatment of diseases caused by this organism. Other studies have pointed to this gene as a potential target of M. tuberculosis vaccine [70–72]
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