Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae encodes multiple phase-variable DNA methyltransferases that control distinct phasevarions

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Nahar, Nusrat
Tram, Greg
Jen, Freda E-C
Phillips, Zachary N
Weinert, Lucy A
Bosse, Janine T
Jabbari, Jafar S
Gouil, Quentin
Du, Mei RM
Ritchie, Matthew E
Bowden, Rory
Langford, Paul R
Tucker, Alexander W
Jennings, Michael P
Turni, Conny
et al.
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2023
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Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae is the cause of porcine pleuropneumonia, a severe respiratory tract infection that is responsible for major economic losses to the swine industry. Many host-adapted bacterial pathogens encode systems known as phasevarions (phase-variable regulons). Phasevarions result from variable expression of cytoplasmic DNA methyltransferases. Variable expression results in genome-wide methylation differences within a bacterial population, leading to altered expression of multiple genes via epigenetic mechanisms. Our examination of a diverse population of A. pleuropneumoniae strains determined that Type I and Type III DNA methyltransferases with the hallmarks of phase variation were present in this species. We demonstrate that phase variation is occurring in these methyltransferases, and show associations between particular Type III methyltransferase alleles and serovar. Using Pacific BioSciences Single-Molecule, Real-Time (SMRT) sequencing and Oxford Nanopore sequencing, we demonstrate the presence of the first ever characterised phase-variable, cytosine-specific Type III DNA methyltransferase. Phase variation of distinct Type III DNA methyltransferase in A. pleuropneumoniae results in the regulation of distinct phasevarions, and in multiple phenotypic differences relevant to pathobiology. Our characterisation of these newly described phasevarions in A. pleuropneumoniae will aid in the selection of stably expressed antigens, and direct and inform development of a rationally designed subunit vaccine against this major veterinary pathogen.

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Nucleic Acids Research

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51

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7

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© The Author(s) 2023. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Nucleic Acids Research. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oup.com

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Biological sciences

Chemical sciences

Environmental sciences

Science & Technology

Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

RESTRICTION-MODIFICATION SYSTEMS

EPIGENETIC REGULATION

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Nahar, N; Tram, G; Jen, FE-C; Phillips, ZN; Weinert, LA; Bosse, JT; Jabbari, JS; Gouil, Q; Du, MRM; Ritchie, ME; Bowden, R; Langford, PR; Tucker, AW; Jennings, MP; Turni, C; Blackall, PJ; Atack, JM, Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae encodes multiple phase-variable DNA methyltransferases that control distinct phasevarions, Nucleic Acids Research, 2023, 51 (7), pp. 3240-3260

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