Genomic Survey of the Non-Cultivatable Opportunistic Human Pathogen, Enterocytozoon bieneusi

PLoS Pathogens

Patrick J. Keeling¹  Nicolas Corradi¹  Louis M. Weiss²  Harriet Mayanja³  James K. Tumwine⁴  Shi Lei⁵  Saul Tzipori⁵  Xiaochuan Feng⁵  Donna E. Akiyoshi⁵  Quanshun Zhang⁵  Hilary G. Morrison⁶ 

[1] Department of Botany, Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada;Department of Medicine, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York, United States of America;Department of Medicine, Makerere University Medical School, Kampala, Uganda;Department of Pediatrics and Child Health, Mulago Hospital, Makerere University Medical School, Kampala, Uganda;Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Tufts Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, North Grafton, Massachusetts, United States of America;Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, United States of America

关键词: Genomics;    Transfer RNA;    Genomic library construction;    Comparative genomics;    Introns;    Ribosomal RNA;    Bacterial spores;    Fungal genomics;   

DOI  :  10.1371/journal.ppat.1000261

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Public Library of Science

【 摘 要 】

Enterocytozoon bieneusi is the most common microsporidian associated with human disease, particularly in the immunocompromised population. In the setting of HIV infection, it is associated with diarrhea and wasting syndrome. Like all microsporidia, E. bieneusi is an obligate, intracellular parasite, but unlike others, it is in direct contact with the host cell cytoplasm. Studies of E. bieneusi have been greatly limited due to the absence of genomic data and lack of a robust cultivation system. Here, we present the first large-scale genomic dataset for E. bieneusi. Approximately 3.86 Mb of unique sequence was generated by paired end Sanger sequencing, representing about 64% of the estimated 6 Mb genome. A total of 3,804 genes were identified in E. bieneusi, of which 1,702 encode proteins with assigned functions. Of these, 653 are homologs of Encephalitozoon cuniculi proteins. Only one E. bieneusi protein with assigned function had no E. cuniculi homolog. The shared proteins were, in general, evenly distributed among the functional categories, with the exception of a dearth of genes encoding proteins associated with pathways for fatty acid and core carbon metabolism. Short intergenic regions, high gene density, and shortened protein-coding sequences were observed in the E. bieneusi genome, all traits consistent with genomic compaction. Our findings suggest that E. bieneusi is a likely model for extreme genome reduction and host dependence.

【 授权许可】

CC BY