Investigation of the pseudogenization rate among genomes of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex

Abstract

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease caused by members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex (MTBC) and can affect human beings and animals. Members of the MTBC are described from evolutionary clonal processes, and present great genomic similarity (> 99.9%). However, even with this great similarity, these species have phenotypic variation related to virulence and host tropism, and MTBC species are characterized as adapted to human beings (i.e. specialist), and to several animal species (i.e. generalist). The pseudogenization processes are described as a form of genic variation in clonal evolutionary species, especially Mycobacterium tuberculosis (human tuberculosis), and have been related to host adaptation. Nevertheless, the description of genomic decay and pseudogenization processes have not been minutely described among the MTBC members, and the impact of these genomic remodeling in generalist species of the complex (e.g. Mycobacterium bovis) is still unknown. Objective: To analyze pseudogenization process and to characterize the pseudogenes in different MTBC species and Mycobacterium canettii, and then to correlate the results with each microorganism phenotype. Material and methods: Genomes of MTBC species and M. canettii available in GenBank will be selected to identify and characterize pseudogenes. After the confirmation, the pseudogene rates will be related with each studied bacterium phenotype. Expected results: The extensively evaluation of the genomic remodeling in the phenotype expression of these pathogens can have significant implications in vaccine development to prevent tuberculosis disease in human beings and animals. (AU)