Comparative and functional genomic analyses of the pathogenicity of phytopathogen Xanthomonas campestris pv. campestris
- Wei Qian1,9,
- Yantao Jia1,9,
- Shuang-Xi Ren2,3,9,
- Yong-Qiang He4,9,
- Jia-Xun Feng4,9,
- Ling-Feng Lu2,9,
- Qihong Sun1,
- Ge Ying1,
- Dong-Jie Tang4,
- Hua Tang5,
- Wei Wu1,
- Pei Hao6,7,
- Lifeng Wang1,
- Bo-Le Jiang4,
- Shenyan Zeng1,
- Wen-Yi Gu2,
- Gang Lu2,
- Li Rong8,
- Yingchuan Tian1,
- Zhijian Yao8,
- Gang Fu2,
- Baoshan Chen4,
- Rongxiang Fang1,
- Boqin Qiang8,
- Zhu Chen2,
- Guo-Ping Zhao2,3,7,10,
- Ji-Liang Tang4,10, and
- Chaozu He1,10
- 1 National Key Laboratory of Plant Genomics, Institute of Microbiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100080, P. R. China
- 2 Laboratory of Health and Disease Genomics, Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai, Shanghai 201203, P. R. China
- 3 National Key Laboratory of Genetic Engineering/Department of Microbiology, School of Life Science, Fudan University, Shanghai 200433, P. R. China
- 4 Guangxi Key Laboratory of Subtropical Bioresources Conservation and Utilization, Guangxi University, Nanning 530004, Guangxi, P. R. China
- 5 Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA
- 6 Shanghai Center for Bioinformation Technology, Shanghai 200235, P. R. China
- 7 Bioinformation Center/Institute of Plant Physiology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200032, P. R. China
- 8 Chinese National Human Genome Center at Beijing, Beijing 100176, P. R. China
Abstract
Xanthomonas campestris pathovar campestris (Xcc) is the causative agent of crucifer black rot disease, which causes severe losses in agricultural yield world-wide. This bacterium is a model organism for studying plant-bacteria interactions. We sequenced the complete genome of Xcc 8004 (5,148,708 bp), which is highly conserved relative to that of Xcc ATCC 33913. Comparative genomics analysis indicated that, in addition to a significant genomic-scale rearrangement cross the replication axis between two IS1478 elements, loss and acquisition of blocks of genes, rather than point mutations, constitute the main genetic variation between the two Xcc strains. Screening of a high-density transposon insertional mutant library (16,512 clones) of Xcc 8004 against a host plant (Brassica oleraceae) identified 75 nonredundant, single-copy insertions in protein-coding sequences (CDSs) and intergenic regions. In addition to known virulence factors, full virulence was found to require several additional metabolic pathways and regulatory systems, such as fatty acid degradation, type IV secretion system, cell signaling, and amino acids and nucleotide metabolism. Among the identified pathogenicity-related genes, three of unknown function were found in Xcc 8004-specific chromosomal segments, revealing a direct correlation between genomic dynamics and Xcc virulence. The present combination of comparative and functional genomic analyses provides valuable information about the genetic basis of Xcc pathogenicity, which may offer novel insight toward the development of efficient methods for prevention of this important plant disease.
Footnotes
-
[Supplemental material is available online at www.genome.org. The sequence data of Xcc 8004 from this study have been submitted to GenBank under accession no. CP000050.]
-
Article and publication date are at http://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.3378705. Article published online before print in May 2005.
-
↵9 These authors contributed equally to this work.
-
↵10 Corresponding authors. E-mail hecz{at}im.ac.cn; fax 86-10-62548243. E-mail gpzhao{at}sibs.ac.cn; fax 86-21-64837495. E-mail jltang{at}gxu.edu.cn; fax 86-771-3237873.
-
- Accepted April 15, 2005.
- Received October 26, 2004.
- Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
