Identification of gene fusion events in Mycobacterium tuberculosis that encode chimeric proteins
Type
ArticleAuthors
Gallant, James
Mouton, Jomien
Ummels, Roy
ten Hagen-Jongman, Corinne
Kriel, Nastassja
Pain, Arnab

Warren, Robin M
Bitter, Wilbert
Heunis, Tiaan
Sampson, Samantha L
KAUST Department
Biological and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (BESE) DivisionBioscience Program
Pathogen Genomics Laboratory
KAUST Grant Number
BAS/1/1020-01-01Date
2020-05-18Online Publication Date
2020-05-18Print Publication Date
2020-06-01Submitted Date
2020-02-06Permanent link to this record
http://hdl.handle.net/10754/662901
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Abstract Mycobacterium tuberculosis is a facultative intracellular pathogen responsible for causing tuberculosis. The harsh environment in which M. tuberculosis survives requires this pathogen to continuously adapt in order to maintain an evolutionary advantage. However, the apparent absence of horizontal gene transfer in M. tuberculosis imposes restrictions in the ways by which evolution can occur. Large-scale changes in the genome can be introduced through genome reduction, recombination events and structural variation. Here, we identify a functional chimeric protein in the ppe38–71 locus, the absence of which is known to have an impact on protein secretion and virulence. To examine whether this approach was used more often by this pathogen, we further develop software that detects potential gene fusion events from multigene deletions using whole genome sequencing data. With this software we could identify a number of other putative gene fusion events within the genomes of M. tuberculosis isolates. We were able to demonstrate the expression of one of these gene fusions at the protein level using mass spectrometry. Therefore, gene fusions may provide an additional means of evolution for M. tuberculosis in its natural environment whereby novel chimeric proteins and functions can arise.Citation
Gallant, J., Mouton, J., Ummels, R., ten Hagen-Jongman, C., Kriel, N., Pain, A., … Sampson, S. L. (2020). Identification of gene fusion events in Mycobacterium tuberculosis that encode chimeric proteins. NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics, 2(2). doi:10.1093/nargab/lqaa033Sponsors
National Research Foundation/Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Desmond Tutu Doctoral Training Program [to J.G.]; Financial support was provided by the South African Medical Research Council Centre for Tuberculosis Research and DST/NRF Centre of Excellence for Biomedical Tuberculosis Research [to S.S, J.G, J.M, N.K]; South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and National Research Foundation (NRF) of South Africa [UID 86539 to S.S.]; KAUST faculty baseline grant [BAS/1/1020-01-01 to A.P.]. Conflict of interest statement. None declared.Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)Journal
NAR Genomics and BioinformaticsAdditional Links
https://academic.oup.com/nargab/article/doi/10.1093/nargab/lqaa033/5838823https://academic.oup.com/nargab/article-pdf/2/2/lqaa033/33227562/lqaa033.pdf
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Is Supplemented By:- [Software]
Title: JamesGallant/Genomics: Pipeline for calling SNV/SV's and gene fusions from paired end illumina reads. Publication Date: 2016-11-28. github: JamesGallant/Genomics Handle: 10754/667868
ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1093/nargab/lqaa033
Scopus Count
Except where otherwise noted, this item's license is described as This is a pre-copyedited, author-produced PDF of an article accepted for publication in NAR Genomics and Bioinformatics following peer review. The version of record is available online at: https://academic.oup.com/nargab/article/doi/10.1093/nargab/lqaa033/5838823.