Abstract
Mycoplasma haemofelis is a mycoplasmal pathogen (hemoplasma) that attaches to the host's erythrocytes. Distributed worldwide, it has a significant impact on the health of cats causing acute disease and, despite treatment, establishing chronic infection. It might also have a role as a zoonotic agent, especially in immunocompromised patients. Whole genome sequencing and analyses of M. haemofelis strain Ohio2 was undertaken as a step toward understanding its survival and persistence. Metabolic pathways are reduced, relying on the host to supply many of the nutrients and metabolites needed for survival. M. haemofelis must import glucose for ATP generation and ribose derivates for RNA/DNA synthesis. Hypoxanthine, adenine, guanine, uracil and CMP are scavenged from the environment to support purine and pyrimidine synthesis. In addition, nicotinamide, amino acids and any vitamins needed for growth, must be acquired from its environment. The core proteome of M. haemofelis contains an abundance of paralogous gene families, corresponding to 70.6% of all the CDSs. This "paralog pool" is a rich source of different antigenic epitopes that can be varied to elude the host's immune system and establish chronic infection. M. haemofelis also appears to be capable of phase variation, which is particularly relevant to the cyclic bacteremia and persistence, characteristics of the infection in the cat. The data generated herein should be of great use for understanding the mechanisms of M. haemofelis infection. Further, it will provide new insights into its pathogenicity and clues needed to formulate media to support the in vitro cultivation of M. haemofelis.
Highlights
Mycoplasma haemofelis is a hemotrophic mycoplasmal pathogen of the cat
Very little was known about the membrane lipoproteins or any other proteins encoded by the genome of M. haemofelis [14] and related hemoplasmas [15]
Gross genome validation was achieved by comparing the virtual fingerprint patterns of M. haemofelis genomic DNA to that of fragments derived from pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) using the restriction enzymes, NruI, SalI, and NotI, and with physical map data from an independently derived bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) library [22]
Summary
There are two phylogenetic clusters of hemoplasmas, the haemofelis cluster and suis cluster, which appear to have descended from a common ancestor They are most closely related to members of the pneumoniae group, albeit only peripherally. M. haemofelis infection in the cat causes an acute hemolytic anemia, either directly or by initiating immune mediated destruction of red blood cells; it might trigger the suicidal death of infected erythrocytes (eryptosis), as recently suggested for M. suis [3]. Very little was known about the membrane lipoproteins or any other proteins encoded by the genome of M. haemofelis [14] and related hemoplasmas [15]. Hemoplasma genes that were retained or acquired during the process of reductive evolution may be valuable to understanding mycoplasmas in general and red blood cell parasitism by hemoplasmas in particular. We present the whole genome sequence, annotation, and bioinformatic analyses of M. haemofelis strain Ohio2 [16] and a comparative analysis with the recently published genome of M. haemofelis strain Langford 1 [17,18]
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