Bioinformatic analysis of a type A Clostridium perfringens strain associated with bovine abomasitis.

DIAZ CARRASCO J.; REDONDO L.; DAILOFF G.; RABINOVITZ B.C.; FARBER M.; FERNÁNDEZ MIYAKAWA M.E.

Congreso; Clostpath 2015; 2015

University of Freiburgh

In thisstudy, a type A Clostridium perfringensstrain isolated from a case of bovine abomasitis was genetically characterized.The genome sequencing of strain 68 was performed using the Illumina MiSeqbenchtop platform. A draft genome sequence was assembled and analyzed by meansof several bioinformatic tools, looking for genetic factors specific to strain68, which should be absent in the reference strains and therefore could be associatedwith the observed disease. The genomic sequence of strain 68 was compared tothree complete C. perfringens genomes(strain 13, SM-101 and ATCC 13124) and one draft genome derived from anothercase of bovine abomasitis (F262). The number of genes detected in the draftgenome of strain 68 was similar to those of the other four C. perfringens genomes. Average nucleotide identity analysisindicated that strain 68 is genetically most related to strain F262, suggestingthat there could be a genetic background associated with the similar virulencephenotype of these two strains. However, through Pan-seq Novel Region Finder analysisand by prediction of genomic islands, we found that strain 68 contains about220 genes which were not detected in any of the other four reference genomes.Almost half of these unique genes belonged to hypothetical or unknown proteinswhile the remaining sequences code mainly for capsular polysaccharidebiosynthesis proteins, phage-related elements and regulatory factors, as wellas for adhesion proteins and other putative virulence factors. Furtherbioinformatic and phenotypic characterization of these features will helpidentify genetic factors associated with this pathology.