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Media type:
E-Article
Title:
Key experimental evidence of chromosomal DNA transfer among selected tuberculosis-causing mycobacteria
Contributor:
Boritsch, Eva C.;
Khanna, Varun;
Pawlik, Alexandre;
Honoré, Nadine;
Navas, Victor H.;
Ma, Laurence;
Bouchier, Christiane;
Seemann, Torsten;
Supply, Philip;
Stinear, Timothy P.;
Brosch, Roland
imprint:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2016
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1073/pnas.1604921113
ISSN:
0027-8424;
1091-6490
Origination:
Footnote:
Description:
<jats:title>Significance</jats:title>
<jats:p>
Whereas most of the more than 130 described mycobacterial species are harmless saprophytes,
<jats:italic>Mycobacterium tuberculosis</jats:italic>
, the human tuberculosis-causing agent, represents one of the deadliest bacterial pathogens in the history of humankind. To explore the mechanisms behind this spectacular evolutionary trajectory toward pathogenicity, we have experimentally investigated the faculty of different tuberculosis-causing mycobacteria in conducting horizontal gene transfer (HGT). Our studies identified unique chromosomal DNA transfer between strains of the
<jats:italic>Mycobacterium canettii</jats:italic>
clade, which resemble most closely the putative common ancestor of the
<jats:italic>M. tuberculosis</jats:italic>
complex. This outstanding feature suggests that during the evolution of
<jats:italic>M. tuberculosis</jats:italic>
, HGT might have represented the major mechanism for acquisition of genes that helped these mycobacteria to increasingly resist host defenses and become major pathogens.
</jats:p>