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The Cipher Code of Simple Sequence Repeats in "Vampire Pathogens"

Geng Zou1, Bernardo Bello-Orti2, Virginia Aragon3

  • 1State Key Laboratory of Agricultural Microbiology, College of Veterinary Medicine, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China.

Scientific Reports
|July 29, 2015
PubMed

Insights

Vampire pathogens (VP) inhabiting mammalian blood exhibit higher (AG)n dimeric simple sequence repeats (Di-SSRs) in their genomes. These repeats correlate with purine metabolism adaptations and amino acid variations, suggesting survival strategies in nutrient-scarce environments.

Area of Science:

  • Microbiology
  • Genomics
  • Bioinformatics

Background:

  • Mammalian blood presents a challenging environment for most prokaryotic microbes.
  • Certain microbes, termed "vampire pathogens" (VP), have adapted to survive within red blood cells, accessing scarce nutrients and evading host immunity.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate genomic differences, specifically simple sequence repeats (SSRs), between VP and non-VP (N_VP) microbes.
  • To explore the functional implications of observed genomic variations in VP adaptation to the blood environment.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative genomic analysis of VP and N_VP strains.
  • Identification and quantification of dimeric simple sequence repeats (Di-SSRs), particularly (AG)n repeats.
  • Regression analysis to correlate SSRs with genomic features like GC content.
  • Gene Ontology (GO) term enrichment analysis to identify functional associations.
  • Analysis of amino acid variations resulting from SSRs.

Main Results:

  • VP strains showed significantly higher counts of (AG)n Di-SSRs in both coding and non-coding genomic regions compared to N_VP.
  • A significant correlation was found between GC content and the variation span of (AG)n-Di-SSRs.
  • VP strains with abundant (AG)3-Di-SSRs were associated with purine nucleotide metabolism pathways, indicating adaptation to low-purine environments.
  • Di-amino acids encoded by (AG)n-Di-SSRs included Arg, Leu, and Ser, with higher counts in VP.
  • Mycoplasma VP exhibited significant differences in triplex formation from (AG)n-Di-SSRs compared to N_VP, suggesting a role in gene regulation.

Conclusions:

  • Elevated (AG)n Di-SSRs are a genomic characteristic of vampire pathogens, potentially aiding their adaptation to the mammalian blood environment.
  • (AG)n-Di-SSRs are linked to purine metabolism and amino acid composition, reflecting nutrient acquisition strategies.
  • The findings suggest that (AG)n-Di-SSRs play a role in the gene regulation and survival of blood-dwelling prokaryotes.

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