Comparative genomics of Mycoplasma feriruminatoris, a fast-growing pathogen of wild Caprinae

Vincent Baby (1, 2) , Chloé Ambroset (3) , Patrice Gaurivaud (3) , Laurent Falquet (4) , Christophe Boury (5) , Erwan Guichoux (5) , Joerg Jores (6) , Carole Lartigue (1) , Florence Tardy (7) , Pascal Sirand-Pugnet (1)

1 BFP - Biologie du fruit et pathologie
2 Faculté de Médecine Vétérinaire, Université de Montréal
3 VAS - VetAgro Sup - Institut national d'enseignement supérieur et de recherche en alimentation, santé animale, sciences agronomiques et de l'environnement
4 SIB - Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics [Genève]
5 BioGeCo - Biodiversité, Gènes & Communautés
6 Vetsuisse Faculty
7 MYCO - Mycoplasmoses animales – UMR

Mycoplasma feriruminatoris is a fast-growing Mycoplasma species isolated from wild Caprinae and first described in 2013. M. feriruminatoris isolates have been associated with arthritis, kerato conjunctivitis, pneumonia and septicemia, but were also recovered from apparently healthy animals. To better understand what defines this species, we performed a genomic survey on 14 strains collected from free-ranging or zoo-housed animals between 1987 and 2017, mostly in Europe. The average chromosome size of the M. feriruminatoris strains was 1,040±0,024 kbp, with 24 % G+C and 852±31 CDS. The core genome and pan-genome of the M. feriruminatoris species contained 628 and 1312 protein families, respectively. The M. feriruminatoris strains displayed a relatively closed pan-genome, with many features and putative virulence factors shared with species from the M. mycoides cluster, including the MIB-MIP Ig cleavage system, a repertoire of DUF285 surface proteins and a complete biosynthetic pathway for galactan. M. feriruminatoris genomes were found to be mostly syntenic, although repertoires of mobile genetic elements, including Mycoplasma Integrative and Conjugative Elements, insertion sequences, and a single plasmid varied. Phylogenetic- and gene content analyses confirmed that M. feriruminatoris was closer to the M. mycoides cluster than to the ruminant species M. yeatsii and M. putrefaciens . Ancestral genome reconstruction showed that the emergence of the M. feriruminatoris species was associated with the gain of 17 gene families, some of which encode defence enzymes and surface proteins, and the loss of 25 others, some of which are involved in sugar transport and metabolism. This comparative study suggests that the M. mycoides cluster could be extended to include M. feriruminatoris . We also find evidence that the specific organization and structure of the DnaA boxes around the oriC of M. feriruminatoris may contribute to drive the remarkable fast growth of this minimal bacterium.

Mots clés: M. mycoides cluster; Mycoplasma feriruminatoris; mobile elements; mollicutes; oriC; polysaccharide biosynthesis; ruminant pathogen.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Médecine vétérinaire et santé animale; Médecine humaine et pathologie

Vincent Baby, Chloé Ambroset, Patrice Gaurivaud, Laurent Falquet, Christophe Boury, et al.. Comparative genomics of Mycoplasma feriruminatoris, a fast-growing pathogen of wild Caprinae. Microbial Genomics, 2023, 9 (10), ⟨10.1099/mgen.0.001112⟩. ⟨hal-04323203⟩