Interdomain Horizontal Gene Transfer Shaped the Genomes of Legionella pneumophila and Legionella longbeachae

  • Laura Gomez-Valero
  • Mario Neou Bonora
  • Simonetta Gribaldo
  • Carmen Buchrieser
Chapter
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Abstract

Legionella are the causative agents of legionellosis or Legionnaires’ disease—a severe pneumonia that can be fatal. Legionella are ubiquitous in natural and artificial freshwater environments worldwide and can also be present in moist soil and composted material, where these bacteria are infecting aquatic and soil amoebae to replicate therein. It is thought that the interaction of Legionella with freshwater amoebae and other protozoa has allowed this bacterium to acquire the factors necessary to replicate within eukaryotic cells. Indeed, the long coevolution with protozoa is reflected in its genome, as a large number of so-called eukaryotic-like genes have been identified. Many of these are secreted virulence factors used by Legionella to subvert host functions. Recent evolutionary studies indicated that these genes have been acquired by horizontal gene transfer (HGT) from aquatic protozoa, or other organisms living in amoebae, but some may have evolved by convergent evolution. In addition to the eukaryotic-like proteins, many other genes of Legionella seem to have been acquired by HGT or are involved in HGT events. In this chapter, we discuss the evolution of the eukaryotic-like proteins of Legionella and HGT among different domains of life in the context of Legionella and aquatic protozoa. Furthermore, a comparison of Legionella with the genomes of other amoeba-associated bacteria is presented, indicating that these bacteria share many common features like frequent HGT from protozoa to bacteria. Legionella is a privileged model to study the evolution of virulence and to understand the emergence of human pathogens.

Keywords

Horizontal Gene Transfer Eukaryotic Protein Prokaryotic Genome Horizontal Gene Transfer Event Obligate Intracellular Bacterium 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This work received financial support from the Institut Pasteur, the Centre National de la Recherche (CNRS), the Institut Carnot-Pasteur MI, the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM) grant No. DEQ20120323697, the grant no. ANR-10-LABX-62-IBEID, and the ANR-10-PATH-004 project “MobilGenomics,” in the frame of ERA-Net PathoGenoMics.

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Authors and Affiliations

  • Laura Gomez-Valero
    • 1
  • Mario Neou Bonora
    • 1
    • 2
  • Simonetta Gribaldo
    • 2
  • Carmen Buchrieser
    • 1
  1. 1.Biologie des Bactéries Intracellulaires, CNRS UMR 3532Institut PasteurParis Cedex 15France
  2. 2.Biologie Moléculaire du Gène chez les ExtrêmophilesInstitut PasteurParisFrance

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