Abstract

Restriction modification (RM) systems are typically regarded as “primitive immune systems” in bacteria. The roles of methylation in gene regulation, segregation, and mismatch repair are increasingly recognized. To analyze methyltransferase (MTase) diversity in Streptococcus pyogenes, we compared the RM system distribution in eight new complete genome sequences obtained here and in the database-deposited complete genome sequences of 51 strains. The MTase gene distribution showed that type I MTases often change DNA sequence specificity via switching target recognition domains between strains. The type II MTases in the included strains fell into two groups: a prophage-dominant one and a CRISPR-dominant one. Some highly variable type II MTases were found in the prophage region, suggesting that MTases acquired from phage DNA can generate methylome diversity. Additionally, to investigate the possible contribution of DNA methylation to phenotype, we compared the methylomes and transcriptomes from the four most closely related strains, the results of which suggest that phage-derived methylases possibly regulate the methylome, and, hence, regulate expression levels in S. pyogenes. Our findings will benefit further experimental work on the relationship between virulence genes and pathogenicity in S. pyogenes.

Competing Interest Statement

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Footnotes

* Footnotes of abstract page removed.

Details

Title
Diversification of the restriction modification system of Streptococcus pyogenes through its acquisition of mobile elements
Author
Ota, Atsushi; Nishiuchi, Yukiko; Nakanishi, Noriko; Iijima, Yoshio; Iwamoto, Tomotada; Osaki, Ken; Ogura, Yoshitoshi; Toyoda, Atsushi; Suzuki, Yutaka; Hayashi, Tetsuya; Ohge, Hiroki; Mori, Hirotada; Ato, Manabu; Maruyama, Fumito
University/institution
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
Section
New Results
Publication year
2020
Publication date
Jul 3, 2020
Publisher
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press
ISSN
2692-8205
Source type
Working Paper
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2419230862
Copyright
© 2020. This article is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (“the License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.