Genomic Methylation Status for Discrimination Among Helicobacter
Species: A Bioinformatics Approach |
| Filipa F. Vale1*, Jorge M. B. Vítor2 |
| 1Engineering Faculty, Catholic University of Portugal, Estrada Octávio Pato, 2635-631 Rio de Mouro, Portugal |
| 2iMed.UL (CECF), Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Lisbon, Av. Forças Armadas, 1649-003 Lisboa, Portugal |
| *Corresponding author: |
Filipa F. Vale. Faculty of Engineering, Catholic University of Portugal, Estrada Octávio Pato,
2635-631 Rio de Mouro, Portugal.
Phone: +351.214269824,
Fax: +351.214269800. 21,
E-mail: filipavale@fe.lisboa.ucp |
|
| Received July 10, 2008; Accepted 08, August 2008; Published August 14, 2008 |
| Citation:Filipa FV, Jorge MBV (2008) Genomic Methylation Status for Discrimination Among Helicobacter Species: A
Bioinformatics Approach. J Proteomics Bioinform 1: 258-266. doi:10.4172/jpb.1000033 |
| Copyright: ©2008 Filipa FV, etal. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons
Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original
author and source are credited. |
| Abstract |
The genus Helicobacter comprises several species of both gastric and enterohepatic intestinal bacteria. H.
pylori, the type species of the genus, is associated with gastritis, peptic ulcer and gastric cancer in humans. H.
pylori genome has a high number of restriction and modification (R-M) systems and their diversity is useful for
strain typing. To analyse if such a high number of expressed methyltransferases is a characteristic of the genus
Helicobacter, the genomic methylation of five non-pylori Helicobacter spp. (H. canadensis, H. canis, H. felis, H.
mustelae and H. pullorum) was determined. The results revealed that the number of R-M systems among nonpylori
Helicobacter spp. is smaller than those observed among a group of 221 H. pylori strains (p<0,001), but is
greater than those observed for the mean of all bacteria sequenced genomes (p=0,005). 16S ribosomal RNA
analysis of H. pylori sequenced strains and five non-pylori Helicobacter spp. clearly isolate H. pylori species.
Surprisingly, the analysis of the genomic methylation status by MCRM algorithm performs similarly. This suggests
that R-M systems do not appear to be spread in a miscellaneous manner, once even that these genes may be
subjected to acquisition and loss; their expression still allows discriminating among Helicobacter spp. |
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