Identification of Brucella ovis exclusive genes in field isolates from Argentina

ALVAREZ L.; GARCÍA-EFFRON G.; ROBLES C.

The Veterinary Journal

ELSEVIER SCI LTD

Lugar: Amsterdam; Año: 2016

1090-0233

Brucellosis caused by Brucella ovis is one of the mostimportant infectious diseases of sheep. The aim of this study was todetermine the presence of genes both inside and outside the specific B.ovis pathogenicity island 1 (BOPI-1) in a large collection of fieldisolates of B. ovis and other Brucella spp. from Argentina. The BOV_A0500gene from B. ovis BOPI-1 was identified in all104 B. ovis isolatesstudied. The BOPI-1 complete sequence was found to be conserved in 10 B.ovis strains from the collection, for which whole genome sequencing wasperformed. The BOV_0198 gene, which is outside BOPI-1 and consideredexclusive to B. ovis, showed 90-100% identity with genomic regions of B.ovis, B. melitensis, B. abortus, B. canis, B. suis, B. microti, B. cetiand B. pinnipedialis. The results demonstrate that BOPI-1 is the onlyexclusive genetic region of B. ovis and marine Brucella spp. and that itis highly conserved in B. ovis field isolates from Argentina.