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Letter

Lateral gene transfer between obligate intracellular bacteria: Evidence from the Rickettsia massiliae genome

¹ Structural and Genomic Information Laboratory, CNRS-UPR 2589, Institut de Biologie Structurale et Microbiologie, IFR 88, Parc Scientifique de Luminy, 13288 Marseille Cedex 9, France; ² Unité des Rickettsies, CNRS-UMR 6020, IFR 48, Faculté de Médecine, 13385 Marseille Cedex 5, France

Rickettsia massiliae is a tick-borne obligate intracellular -proteobacteria causing spotted fever in humans. Here, we present the sequence of its genome, comprising a 1.3-Mb circular chromosome and a 15.3-kb plasmid. The chromosome exhibits long-range colinearity with the other Spotted Fever Group Rickettsia genomes, except for a large fragment specific to R. massiliae that contains 14 tra genes presumably involved in pilus formation and conjugal DNA transfer. We demonstrate that the tra region was acquired recently by lateral gene transfer (LGT) from a species related to Rickettsia bellii. Further analysis of the genomic sequences identifies additional candidates of LGT between Rickettsia. Our study indicates that recent LGT between obligate intracellular Rickettsia is more common than previously thought.

E-mail guillaume.blanc{at}igs.cnrs-mrs.fr; fax 33-4-91-82-54-21.

[Supplemental material is available online at www.genome.org.]

Article published online before print. Article and publication date are at http://www.genome.org/cgi/doi/10.1101/gr.6742107

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