[CITRULLINUREIDASE GENE DIVERSITY IN THE GENUS FRANCISELLA]

This work describes the results, of the in silico analysis of the genetic diversity of the citrullinureidase gene (ctu) in two species of bacteria of the genus Francisella: tularensis (ssp. tularensis, holarctica, mediasiatica, novicida) and philomiragia. The strains of the Central Asiatic subspecies possessing the citrullinureidase activity differ in the gene ctu from the ssp tularensis Schu by three nucleotide substitutions leading to two insignificant amino acid substitutions in the encoded polypeptide. In the strain F. tularensis of the ssp. holarctica the gene ctu encodes inactive enzyme, which is probably due to amino acid substitutions: 151 Gly --> Asp, 183 Pro --> Leu, 222 Asp --> Asn. Except for the Japan biovar bacteria, in all strains of the Holarctic subspecies there are two stop codons in the gene ctu. The bacteria of the subspecies novicida contain the ctu gene only in the strain 3523, whereas the other strains contain the gene FTN_0827 encoding the C-N hydrolase, which probably provides the citrullinureidase activity.