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Journal of Bacteriology, May 2004, p. 2818-2828, Vol. 186, No. 9
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.9.2818-2828.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Molecular Evolution and Mosaicism of Leptospiral Outer Membrane Proteins Involves Horizontal DNA Transfer

David A. Haake,1,2* Marc A. Suchard,3 Melissa M. Kelley,1,2 Manjula Dundoo,1,2 David P. Alt,4 and Richard L. Zuerner4

Division of Infectious Diseases, Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, California 90073,1 Department of Medicine,2 Department of Biomathematics, David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California—Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California 90095,3 National Animal Disease Center, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Ames, Iowa 500104

Received 26 November 2003/ Accepted 28 January 2004

Leptospires belong to a genus of parasitic bacterial spirochetes that have adapted to a broad range of mammalian hosts. Mechanisms of leptospiral molecular evolution were explored by sequence analysis of four genes shared by 38 strains belonging to the core group of pathogenic Leptospira species: L. interrogans, L. kirschneri, L. noguchii, L. borgpetersenii, L. santarosai, and L. weilii. The 16S rRNA and lipL32 genes were highly conserved, and the lipL41 and ompL1 genes were significantly more variable. Synonymous substitutions are distributed throughout the ompL1 gene, whereas nonsynonymous substitutions are clustered in four variable regions encoding surface loops. While phylogenetic trees for the 16S, lipL32, and lipL41 genes were relatively stable, 8 of 38 (20%) ompL1 sequences had mosaic compositions consistent with horizontal transfer of DNA between related bacterial species. A novel Bayesian multiple change point model was used to identify the most likely sites of recombination and to determine the phylogenetic relatedness of the segments of the mosaic ompL1 genes. Segments of the mosaic ompL1 genes encoding two of the surface-exposed loops were likely acquired by horizontal transfer from a peregrine allele of unknown ancestry. Identification of the most likely sites of recombination with the Bayesian multiple change point model, an approach which has not previously been applied to prokaryotic gene sequence analysis, serves as a model for future studies of recombination in molecular evolution of genes.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Division of Infectious Diseases, 111F, 11031 Wilshire Blvd., VA Greater LA Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA 90073. Phone: (310) 268-3814. Fax: (310) 268-4928. E-mail: dhaake{at}ucla.edu.

Journal of Bacteriology, May 2004, p. 2818-2828, Vol. 186, No. 9
0021-9193/04/$08.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JB.186.9.2818-2828.2004
Copyright © 2004, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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