Genetic rearrangements in Pseudomonas amygdali pathovar aesculi shape coronatine plasmids

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Documents

  • Fulltext

    Final published version, 6.33 MB, PDF document

Plant pathogenic Pseudomonas species use multiple classes of toxins and virulence factors during host infection. The genes encoding these pathogenicity factors are often located on plasmids and other mobile genetic elements, suggesting that they are acquired through horizontal gene transfer to confer an evolutionary advantage for successful adaptation to host infection. However, the genetic rearrangements that have led to mobilization of the pathogenicity genes are not fully understood. In this study, we have sequenced and analyzed the complete genome sequences of four Pseudomonas amygdali pv. aesculi (Pae), which infect European horse chestnut trees (Aesculus hippocastanum) and belong to phylogroup 3 of the P. syringae species complex. The four investigated genomes contain six groups of plasmids that all encode pathogenicity factors. Effector genes were found to be mostly associated with insertion sequence elements, suggesting that virulence genes are generally mobilized and potentially undergo horizontal gene transfer after transfer to a conjugative plasmid. We show that the biosynthetic gene cluster encoding the phytotoxin coronatine was recently transferred from a chromosomal location to a mobilizable plasmid that subsequently formed a co-integrate with a conjugative plasmid.

Original languageEnglish
Article number105486
JournalInfection, Genetics and Evolution
Volume113
Number of pages10
ISSN1567-1348
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023

    Research areas

  • Coronatine, Mobile genetic elements, Nanopore sequencing, Phytotoxins, Plant pathogens, Plasmid, Pseudomonas, Virulence

ID: 362277945