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Vol 46 No. 7: 606-611 |
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Re-characterization of an extrachromosomal circular plasmid in the pathogenic Leptospira interrogans serovar Lai strain 56601 |
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Lili Huang1,†,
Weinan Zhu1,†,
Ping He1,
Yan Zhang1,
Xuran Zhuang1,
Guoping Zhao2,
Xiaokui Guo1,
Jinhong Qin1,* and
Yongzhang Zhu1,*
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1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Institute of Medical Science, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 280 South Chongqing Road, Shanghai 200025, China
2CAS-Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology, Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, China
†These authors contributed equally to this work.
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Abstract In China, Leptospira interrogans serovar Lai strain 56601 (str.56601) is one of main pathogenic strains that cause severe leptospirosis in both human and animals. The genome of this organism was completely sequenced in 2003. However, in 2011, we identified and corrected some assembly errors in the str.56601 genome due to the repeat sequences widely distributed in the Leptospira genome. In this study, we re-analyzed the previously reported mobile, phage-related genomic island in the chromosome and rectified detailed sequence information in both the plasmid and chromosome using various experimental methods. The presence of a separate circular extrachromosomal plasmid was also confirmed, and its location in the genomic region was determined relative to the genomic island reported in L. interrogans serovar Lai by a combination of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis -based and plasmid extraction-based Southern blot analysis. This report confirmed that the separate extrachromosomal circular plasmid is not integrated into the chromosome of L. interrogans str.56601 and markedly improved our understanding of the genomic organization, evolution, and pathogenesis of L. interrogans. In particular, characterization of this extrachromosomal circular plasmid will contribute to the development of genetic manipulation systems in pathogenic Leptospira species.
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Keywords genomic island; Leptospira interrogans; extrachromosomal circular plasmid
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Received 2013-12-24
Accepted 2014-3-18
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Funding This work was supported in part by the grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30770820, 30970125, 81101264, and 81171587) and the National Key Program for Infectious Diseases of China (2009ZX10004-712).
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* Correspondence address Tel: +86-21-63846590-778017; Fax: +86-21-64453285; E-mail: [email protected] (Y.Z.)/[email protected] (J.Q.)
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