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Journal of Bacteriology, December 2006, p. 8169-8177, Vol. 188, No. 23
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01062-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Evidence for Recombination in Mycobacterium tuberculosis{triangledown} ,{dagger}

Xiaoming Liu,1 Michaela M. Gutacker,2,{ddagger} James M. Musser,2,3 and Yun-Xin Fu1*

Human Genetics Center, University of Texas at Houston, Houston, Texas 77225,1 Laboratory of Human Bacterial Pathogenesis, Rocky Mountain Laboratories, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, National Institutes of Health, 903 South 4th Street, Hamilton, Montana 59840,2 Center for Human Bacterial Pathogenesis Research, Department of Pathology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas 770303

Received 19 July 2006/ Accepted 14 September 2006

Due to its mostly isolated living environment, Mycobacterium tuberculosis is generally believed to be highly clonal, and thus recombination between different strains must be rare and is not critical for the survival of the species. To investigate the roles recombination could have possibly played in the evolution of M. tuberculosis, an analysis was conducted on previously determined genotypes of 36 synonymous single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 3,320 M. tuberculosis isolates. The results confirmed the predominant clonal structure of the M. tuberculosis population. However, recombination between different strains was also suggested. To further resolve the issue, 175 intergenic SNPs and 234 synonymous SNPs were genotyped in 37 selected representative strains. A clear mosaic polymorphic pattern ahead of the MT0105 locus encoding a PPE (Pro-Pro-Glu) protein was obtained, which is most likely a result of recombination hot spot. Given that PPE proteins are thought to be critical in host-pathogen interactions, we hypothesize that recombination has been influential in the history of M. tuberculosis and possibly a major contributor to the diversity observed ahead of the MT0105 locus.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Human Genetics Center, University of Texas at Houston, P.O. Box 20186, Houston, TX 77225. Phone: (713) 500-9813. Fax: (713) 500-0900. E-mail: Yunxin.Fu{at}uth.tmc.edu.

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 22 September 2006.

{dagger} Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

{ddagger} Present address: Istituto Cantonale di Microbiologia, Via Mirasole 22A, 6500 Bellinzona, Switzerland.

Journal of Bacteriology, December 2006, p. 8169-8177, Vol. 188, No. 23
0021-9193/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01062-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Karboul, A., Mazza, A., Gey van Pittius, N. C., Ho, J. L., Brousseau, R., Mardassi, H. (2008). Frequent Homologous Recombination Events in Mycobacterium tuberculosis PE/PPE Multigene Families: Potential Role in Antigenic Variability. J. Bacteriol. 190: 7838-7846 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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