Whole Genome Comparison between Exopolysaccharide-Producing Prevotella intermedia Strain 17 and Its Non-Producing Variant Strain 17-2

Yamanaka T, Maruyama H, Mashimo C, Ozawa J, Takagi N, Matsumoto K, Sanada I and Nambu T

Published on: 2024-05-14

Abstract

Background

Exopolysaccharides (EPS) as biofilm matrices in many bacteria are known to be crucial for their resistance against host innate immune responses and for establishing persistent infection in the host. Prevotella intermedia, a gram-negative, black-pigmented anaerobic rod, has been implicated in the development of chronic oral infection, and we have previously reported that some clinical isolates of P. intermedia have a capacity to produce EPS, form dense biofilm structures in vitro, and can induce abscess formation in mice experimentally. However, the gene expression events behind the EPS production in this organism still remain to be elucidated. To explore genes involved in the biofilm formation of P. intermedia, we performed a genome comparison between biofilm-forming P. intermedia strain 17 and strain 17-2, a variant of strain 17 that lacked the biofilm-forming capacity.

Methods

Genome sequences of both strains in the NCBI database (strain 17 chromosome I: NC_017860; chromosome II: NC_017861; strain 17-2 chromosome I: AP014926; chromosome II: AP014926) were used in this study. A genome comparison between P. intermedia strains 17 and 17-2 was undertaken with MUMmer.

Results

The comparative analysis showed 213 single nucleotide variants on the whole genome sequence and a deletion of 3,186 base pairs on chromosome II of strain 17-2. The latter larger deletion affected four genes annotated as sugar transferase (locus tag: PIN17_RS10270), capsule biosynthesis protein (RS10275), chain-length determining protein (RS10280), and polysaccharide biosynthesis protein (RS10285), respectively.

Conclusions

These results suggest that the gene cluster highlighted in this study might be involved in the biofilm formation of this organism.