DNA microarray analysis of genome dynamics in Yersinia pestis: insights into bacterial genome microevolution and niche adaptation.

ABSTRACT: Genomics research provides an unprecedented opportunity for us to probe into the pathogenicity and evolution of the world's most deadly pathogenic bacterium, Yersinia pestis, in minute detail. In our present work, extensive microarray analysis in conjunction with PCR validation revealed that there are considerable genome dynamics, due to gene acquisition and loss, in natural populations of Y. pestis. We established a genomotyping system to group homologous isolates of Y. pestis, based on profiling or gene acquisition and loss in their genomes, and then drew an outline of parallel microevolution of the Y. pestis genome. The acquisition of a number of genomic islands and plasmids most likely induced Y. pestis to evolve rapidly from Yersinia pseudotuberculosis to a new, deadly pathogen. Horiz

SUBMITTER: Zhou D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC451624 | biostudies-literature | 2004 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature