(Below N is a link to NCBI taxonomic web page and E link to ESTHER at designed phylum.) > cellular organisms: NE > Bacteria: NE > Terrabacteria group: NE > Actinobacteria [phylum]: NE > Actinobacteria [class]: NE > Micrococcales: NE > unclassified Micrococcales: NE > Tropheryma: NE > Tropheryma whipplei: NE
Warning: This entry is a compilation of different species or line or strain with more than 90% amino acid identity. You can retrieve all strain data
(Below N is a link to NCBI taxonomic web page and E link to ESTHER at designed phylum.) Tropheryma whipplei TW08/27: N, E.
Tropheryma whipplei str. Twist: N, E.
LegendThis sequence has been compared to family alignement (MSA) red => minority aminoacid blue => majority aminoacid color intensity => conservation rate title => sequence position(MSA position)aminoacid rate Catalytic site Catalytic site in the MSA MNNFDASAPIDECRVLGHVNENRFLLLAMHGYSGNNQVMYDTVKSFMPQE IQAGISIVSLRAPIDLSSVSEGPDEGFAWFLFDESGSYKNSYKTLSQSAK QILSWLDTKKPAGIGLLGFSQGGAMCMELLRAAPEKFDFAVNISGFVWGP PRRDDSVLAGGLEKRVRYGDSLVTERRRTEVFWGLGKEDTILPYKVWEAT QAWLLSVTNPEIRIYPELAHKICDEEVRDISSFLL
BACKGROUND:
Whipple's disease is a rare multisystem chronic infection, involving the intestinal tract as well as various other organs. The causative agent, Tropheryma whipplei, is a Gram-positive bacterium about which little is known. Our aim was to investigate the biology of this organism by generating and analysing the complete DNA sequence of its genome.
METHODS:
We isolated and propagated T whipplei strain TW08/27 from the cerebrospinal fluid of a patient diagnosed with Whipple's disease. We generated the complete sequence of the genome by the whole genome shotgun method, and analysed it with a combination of automatic and manual bioinformatic techniques.
FINDINGS:
Sequencing revealed a condensed 925938 bp genome with a lack of key biosynthetic pathways and a reduced capacity for energy metabolism. A family of large surface proteins was identified, some associated with large amounts of non-coding repetitive DNA, and an unexpected degree of sequence variation.
INTERPRETATION:
The genome reduction and lack of metabolic capabilities point to a host-restricted lifestyle for the organism. The sequence variation indicates both known and novel mechanisms for the elaboration and variation of surface structures, and suggests that immune evasion and host interaction play an important part in the lifestyle of this persistent bacterial pathogen.
The human pathogen Tropheryma whipplei is the only known reduced genome species (<1 Mb) within the Actinobacteria [high G+C Gram-positive bacteria]. We present the sequence of the 927303-bp circular genome of T. whipplei Twist strain, encoding 808 predicted protein-coding genes. Specific genome features include deficiencies in amino acid metabolisms, the lack of clear thioredoxin and thioredoxin reductase homologs, and a mutation in DNA gyrase predicting a resistance to quinolone antibiotics. Moreover, the alignment of the two available T. whipplei genome sequences (Twist vs. TW08/27) revealed a large chromosomal inversion the extremities of which are located within two paralogous genes. These genes belong to a large cell-surface protein family defined by the presence of a common repeat highly conserved at the nucleotide level. The repeats appear to trigger frequent genome rearrangements in T. whipplei, potentially resulting in the expression of different subsets of cell surface proteins. This might represent a new mechanism for evading host defenses. The T. whipplei genome sequence was also compared to other reduced bacterial genomes to examine the generality of previously detected features. The analysis of the genome sequence of this previously largely unknown human pathogen is now guiding the development of molecular diagnostic tools and more convenient culture conditions.
