High-Frequency Variation of Purine Biosynthesis Genes Is a Mechanism of Success in Campylobacter jejuni.

ABSTRACT:

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Phenotypic variation is prevalent in the zoonotic pathogen Campylobacter jejuni, the leading agent of enterocolitis in the developed world. Heterogeneity enhances the survival and adaptive malleability of bacterial populations because variable phenotypes may allow some cells to be protected against future stress. Exposure to hyperosmotic stress previously revealed prevalent differences in growth between C. jejuni strain 81-176 colonies due to resistant or sensitive phenotypes, and these isolated colonies continued to produce progeny with differential phenotypes. In this study, whole-genome sequencing of isolated colonies identified allelic variants of two purine biosynthesis genes, purF and apt, encoding phosphoribosyltransferases that utilize a shared substrate. Genetic

SUBMITTER: Cameron A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4611032 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature