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Journal of Bacteriology, August 2004, p. 5473-5479, Vol. 186, No. 16
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.16.5473-5479.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Comparative Whole-Genome Analysis of Virulent and Avirulent Strains of Porphyromonas gingivalis

Tsute Chen,1 Yumiko Hosogi,1 Kiyoshi Nishikawa,1 Kevin Abbey,1 Robert D. Fleischmann,2 Jennifer Walling,2 and Margaret J. Duncan1*

Department of Molecular Genetics, The Forsyth Institute, Boston, Massachusetts 02115,1 The Institute for Genomic Research, Rockville, Maryland 208502

Received 9 October 2003/ Accepted 11 May 2004

We used Porphyromonas gingivalis gene microarrays to compare the total gene contents of the virulent strain W83 and the avirulent type strain, ATCC 33277. Signal ratios and scatter plots indicated that the chromosomes were very similar, with approximately 93% of the predicted genes in common, while at least 7% of them showed very low or no signals in ATCC 33277. Verification of the array results by PCR indicated that several of the disparate genes were either absent from or variant in ATCC 33277. Divergent features included already reported insertion sequences and ragB, as well as additional hypothetical and functionally assigned genes. Several of the latter were organized in a putative operon in W83 and encoded enzymes involved in capsular polysaccharide synthesis. Another cluster was associated with two paralogous regions of the chromosome with a low G+C content, at 41%, compared to that of the whole genome, at 48%. These regions also contained conserved and species-specific hypothetical genes, transposons, insertion sequences, and integrases and were located adjacent to tRNA genes; thus, they had several characteristics of pathogenicity islands. While this global comparative analysis showed the close relationship between W83 and ATCC 33277, the clustering of genes that are present in W83 but divergent in or absent from ATCC 33277 is suggestive of chromosomal islands that may have been acquired by lateral gene transfer.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Department of Molecular Genetics, The Forsyth Institute, 140 Fenway, Boston, MA 02115. Phone: (617) 262-5200, ext. 8344. Fax: (617) 262-4021. E-mail: mduncan{at}forsyth.org.

Journal of Bacteriology, August 2004, p. 5473-5479, Vol. 186, No. 16
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.16.5473-5479.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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