Intragenic Recombination Has a Critical Role on the Evolution of Legionella pneumophila Virulence-Related Effector sidJ
Journal article, 2014

SidJ is a Dot/Icm effector involved in the trafficking or retention of ER-derived vesicles to Legionella pneumophila vacuoles whose mutation causes an observable growth defect, both in macrophage and amoeba hosts. Given the crucial role of this effector in L. pneumophila virulence we investigated the mechanisms shaping its molecular evolution. The alignment of SidJ sequences revealed several alleles with amino acid variations that may influence the protein properties. The identification of HGT events and the detection of balancing selection operating on sidJ evolution emerge as a clear result. Evidence suggests that intragenic recombination is an important strategy in the evolutionary adaptive process playing an active role on sidJ genetic plasticity. This pattern of evolution is in accordance with the life style of L. pneumophila as a broad host-range pathogen by preventing host-specialization and contributing to the resilience of the species.

Author

J. Costa

University of Coimbra

Paulo Teixeira

Chalmers, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Life Sciences

A. F. d'Avo

University of Coimbra

C. Santos

Federal University of São Carlos

A. Verissimo

University of Coimbra

PLoS ONE

1932-6203 (ISSN) 19326203 (eISSN)

Vol. 9 10 e109840

Subject Categories

Chemical Sciences

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0109840

More information

Latest update

3/29/2018