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A phylogenomic and molecular signature based approach for characterization of the phylum Spirochaetes and its major clades: proposal for a taxonomic revision of the phylum.

ABSTRACT: The Spirochaetes species cause many important diseases including syphilis and Lyme disease. Except for their containing a distinctive endoflagella, no other molecular or biochemical characteristics are presently known that are specific for either all Spirochaetes or its different families. We report detailed comparative and phylogenomic analyses of protein sequences from Spirochaetes genomes to understand their evolutionary relationships and to identify molecular signatures for this group. These studies have identified 38 conserved signature indels (CSIs) that are specific for either all members of the phylum Spirochaetes or its different main clades. Of these CSIs, a 3 aa insert in the FlgC protein is uniquely shared by all sequenced Spirochaetes providing a molecular marker for this phylum. Seven, six, and five CSIs in different proteins are specific for members of the families Spirochaetaceae, Brachyspiraceae, and Leptospiraceae, respectively. Of the 19 other identified CSIs, 3 are uniquely shared by members of the genera Sphaerochaeta, Spirochaeta, and Treponema, whereas 16 others are specific for the genus Borrelia. A monophyletic grouping of the genera Sphaerochaeta, Spirochaeta, and Treponema distinct from the genus Borrelia is also strongly supported by phylogenetic trees based upon concatenated sequences of 22 conserved proteins. The molecular markers described here provide novel and more definitive means for identification and demarcation of different main groups of Spirochaetes. To accommodate the extensive genetic diversity of the Spirochaetes as revealed by different CSIs and phylogenetic analyses, it is proposed that the four families of this phylum should be elevated to the order level taxonomic ranks (viz. Spirochaetales, Brevinematales ord. nov., Brachyspiriales ord. nov., and Leptospiriales ord. nov.). It is further proposed that the genera Borrelia and Cristispira be transferred to a new family Borreliaceae fam. nov. within the order Spirochaetales.

SUBMITTER: Gupta RS

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3726837 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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A phylogenomic and molecular signature based approach for characterization of the phylum Spirochaetes and its major clades: proposal for a taxonomic revision of the phylum.

Gupta Radhey S RS Mahmood Sharmeen S Adeolu Mobolaji M

Frontiers in microbiology 20130730

The Spirochaetes species cause many important diseases including syphilis and Lyme disease. Except for their containing a distinctive endoflagella, no other molecular or biochemical characteristics are presently known that are specific for either all Spirochaetes or its different families. We report detailed comparative and phylogenomic analyses of protein sequences from Spirochaetes genomes to understand their evolutionary relationships and to identify molecular signatures for this group. These ...[more]

PMID: 23908650

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Project description:BackgroundThe phylogeny and taxonomy of cyanobacteria is currently poorly understood due to paucity of reliable markers for identification and circumscription of its major clades.ResultsA combination of phylogenomic and protein signature based approaches was used to characterize the major clades of cyanobacteria. Phylogenetic trees were constructed for 44 cyanobacteria based on 44 conserved proteins. In parallel, Blastp searches were carried out on each ORF in the genomes of Synechococcus WH8102, Synechocystis PCC6803, Nostoc PCC7120, Synechococcus JA-3-3Ab, Prochlorococcus MIT9215 and Prochlor. marinus subsp. marinus CCMP1375 to identify proteins that are specific for various main clades of cyanobacteria. These studies have identified 39 proteins that are specific for all (or most) cyanobacteria and large numbers of proteins for other cyanobacterial clades. The identified signature proteins include: (i) 14 proteins for a deep branching clade (Clade A) of Gloebacter violaceus and two diazotrophic Synechococcus strains (JA-3-3Ab and JA2-3-B'a); (ii) 5 proteins that are present in all other cyanobacteria except those from Clade A; (iii) 60 proteins that are specific for a clade (Clade C) consisting of various marine unicellular cyanobacteria (viz. Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus); (iv) 14 and 19 signature proteins that are specific for the Clade C Synechococcus and Prochlorococcus strains, respectively; (v) 67 proteins that are specific for the Low B/A ecotype Prochlorococcus strains, containing lower ratio of chl b/a2 and adapted to growth at high light intensities; (vi) 65 and 8 proteins that are specific for the Nostocales and Chroococcales orders, respectively; and (vii) 22 and 9 proteins that are uniquely shared by various Nostocales and Oscillatoriales orders, or by these two orders and the Chroococcales, respectively. We also describe 3 conserved indels in flavoprotein, heme oxygenase and protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase proteins that are specific for either Clade C cyanobacteria or for various subclades of Prochlorococcus. Many other conserved indels for cyanobacterial clades have been described recently.ConclusionsThese signature proteins and indels provide novel means for circumscription of various cyanobacterial clades in clear molecular terms. Their functional studies should lead to discovery of novel properties that are unique to these groups of cyanobacteria.

Project description:BACKGROUND:The evolutionary history of a species is frequently derived from molecular sequences, and the resulting phylogenetic trees do not include explicit functional information. Here, we aimed to assess the functional relationships among bacteria in the Spirochaetes phylum, based on the biological processes of 42,489 proteins in reference proteomes of 34 Spirochaetes species. We tested the hypothesis that the species in the genus Borrelia might be sufficiently different to warrant splitting them into two separate genera. RESULTS:A detrended canonical analysis demonstrated that the presence/absence of biological processes among selected bacteria contained a strong phylogenetic signal, which did not separate species of Borrelia. We examined the ten biological processes in which most proteins were involved consistently. This analysis demonstrated that species in Borrelia were more similar to each other than to free-life species (Sediminispirochaeta, Spirochaeta, Sphaerochaeta) or to pathogenic species without vectors (Leptospira, Treponema, Brachyspira), which are highly divergent. A dendrogram based on the presence/absence of proteins in the reference proteomes demonstrated that distances between species of the same genus among free-life or pathogenic non-vector species were higher than the distances between the 19 species (27 strains) of Borrelia. A phyloproteomic network supported the close functional association between species of Borrelia. In the proteome of 27 strains of Borrelia, only a few proteins had evolved separately, in the relapsing fever and Lyme borreliosis groups. The most prominent Borrelia proteins and processes were a subset of those also found in free-living and non-vectored pathogenic species. In addition, the functional innovation (i.e., unique biological processes or proteins) of Borrelia was very low, compared to other genera of Spirochaetes. CONCLUSIONS:We found only marginal functional differences among Borrelia species. Phyloproteomic networks that included all pairwise combinations between species, proteins, and processes were more effective than other methods for evaluating the evolutionary relationships among taxa. With the limitations of data availability, our results did not support a split of the arthropod-transmitted spirochaetes into the proposed genera, Borrelia and Borreliella.

Dataset Information

A phylogenomic and molecular signature based approach for characterization of the phylum Spirochaetes and its major clades: proposal for a taxonomic revision of the phylum.

Publications

A phylogenomic and molecular signature based approach for characterization of the phylum Spirochaetes and its major clades: proposal for a taxonomic revision of the phylum.

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