Abstract
Psychrotrophic foodborne pathogens, such as enteropathogenic Yersinia, which are able to survive and multiply at low temperatures, require cold shock proteins (Csps). The Csp superfamily consists of a diverse group of homologous proteins, which have been found throughout the eubacteria. They are related to cold shock tolerance and other cellular processes. Csps are mainly named following the convention of those in Escherichia coli. However, the nomenclature of certain Csps reflects neither their sequences nor functions, which can be confusing. Here, we performed phylogenetic analyses on Csp sequences in psychrotrophic enteropathogenic Yersinia and E. coli. We found that representative Csps in enteropathogenic Yersinia and E. coli can be clustered into six phylogenetic groups. When we extended the analysis to cover Enterobacteriales, the same major groups formed. Moreover, we investigated the evolutionary and structural relationships and the origin time of Csp superfamily members in eubacteria using nucleotide-level comparisons. Csps in eubacteria were classified into five clades and 12 subclades. The most recent common ancestor of Csp genes was estimated to have existed 3585 million years ago, indicating that Csps have been important since the beginning of evolution and have enabled bacterial growth in unfavorable conditions.
Highlights
Psychrotrophic foodborne pathogens, such as enteropathogenic Yersinia, which are able to survive and multiply at low temperatures, pose a risk in modern food production, where cold chains are used to increase the shelf lives of food products [1,2,3]
10 patterns were specific for Y. enterocolitica, 10 patterns were only found in Y. pseudotuberculosis and both species harbored patterns 12, 13 and 14 (Figure 1, Tables S3 and S4)
Pattern 17 represented by CspE2 (YE1546) forms a monophyletic branch separated from the other patterns, and no identical pattern was found in Y. pseudotuberculosis
Summary
Psychrotrophic foodborne pathogens, such as enteropathogenic Yersinia, which are able to survive and multiply at low temperatures, pose a risk in modern food production, where cold chains are used to increase the shelf lives of food products [1,2,3]. Cold-induced proteins (Cips) are important for growth at low temperatures and are involved in RNA metabolism, protein folding and the synthesis of membrane lipid A [4]. Many csp genes are highly induced after a temperature downshift, and Csps are known to play a key role in survival after cold shock and in adaptation to low growth temperature [4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. A deeper understanding of the Csps of psychrotrophs could contribute to preventing their growth in refrigerated food or in optimizing the production of their enzyme for biotechnological purposes [26]
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