TY - JOUR
T1 - Have archaeal genes contributed to bacterial virulence?
AU - Gophna, Uri
AU - Charlebois, Robert L.
AU - Doolittle, W. Ford
N1 - Funding Information:
UG is supported by a Killam Postdoctoral Fellowship, WFD by the Canada Research Chair Program, and this research by Genome Atlantic and the Canadian Institutes for Health Research. We thank Yan Boucher for his expert help in phylogenetic analysis.
PY - 2004/5
Y1 - 2004/5
N2 - Although archaea have not been described as pathogens, it has recently been suggested that genes transferred from archaea might specifically contribute to bacterial virulence. Here, we survey 73 genomes of bacterial pathogens for the presence of genes originating from archaea. We describe 43 cases in which acquisition of archaeal genes by bacterial pathogens can be demonstrated. Although no bona fide virulence factors are among these acquired genes, several of them probably affect pathogen-host interactions.
AB - Although archaea have not been described as pathogens, it has recently been suggested that genes transferred from archaea might specifically contribute to bacterial virulence. Here, we survey 73 genomes of bacterial pathogens for the presence of genes originating from archaea. We describe 43 cases in which acquisition of archaeal genes by bacterial pathogens can be demonstrated. Although no bona fide virulence factors are among these acquired genes, several of them probably affect pathogen-host interactions.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=2042507722&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.tim.2004.03.002
DO - 10.1016/j.tim.2004.03.002
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AN - SCOPUS:2042507722
SN - 0966-842X
VL - 12
SP - 213
EP - 219
JO - Trends in Microbiology
JF - Trends in Microbiology
IS - 5
ER -
