Impact of in vitro evolution on antigenic diversity of Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG).

ABSTRACT: Mycobacterium bovis bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG), the only vaccine currently used against tuberculosis, is an attenuated derivative of M. bovis that has been propagated in vitro for more than 40 years. We have previously reported that the experimentally-verified human T cell epitopes of the M. tuberculosis complex (MTBC) are the most conserved elements of the genome; whether immune recognition is the force driving the conservation of epitopes in the MTBC is unknown. Therefore, we sequenced the genomes of 12 BCG strains to determine whether T cell epitopes were under selection pressure during BCG in vitro evolution. We constructed a genome-wide phylogeny and refined the previously-determined BCG phylogeny. Notably, we identified a new cluster between BCG Japan and BCG Russia, and repositi

SUBMITTER: Copin R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4539939 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature