Genetic heterogeneity of the Spy1336/R28-Spy1337 virulence axis in Streptococcus pyogenes and effect on gene transcript levels and pathogenesis.

ABSTRACT: Streptococcus pyogenes is a strict human pathogen responsible for more than 700 million infections annually worldwide. Strains of serotype M28 S. pyogenes are typically among the five more abundant types causing invasive infections and pharyngitis in adults and children. Type M28 strains also have an unusual propensity to cause puerperal sepsis and neonatal disease. We recently discovered that a one-nucleotide indel in an intergenic homopolymeric tract located between genes Spy1336/R28 and Spy1337 altered virulence in a mouse model of infection. In the present study, we analyzed size variation in this homopolymeric tract and determined the extent of heterogeneity in the number of tandemly-repeated 79-amino acid domains in the coding region of Spy1336/R28 in large samples of strains recover

SUBMITTER: Eraso JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7098570 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature