Tropheryma whipplei
Classification
Higher order taxa
Cellular Organisms; Bacteria; Actinobacteria; Actinobacteria (class); Actinobacteridae; Actinomycetales; Micrococcineae; Cellulomonadaceae; Tropheryma; Tropheryma Whipplei
Genus
Italic text
Genus: Tropheryma Species: Whipplei
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NCBI: Taxonomy |
Description and significance
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Genome structure
Troperyma Whipplei is the only reduced genome species, being less than 1Mb within the Actinobacteria. Though this human pathogen is small, it has a sequence of 927, 303 bp and is a circular genome. It encodes 808 predicted protein-coding genes. It has several specific genome features including: deficiencies in amino acid metabolism; a mutation in DNA gyrase, which leads to the potential resistance to quinolone antibiotics; lacks a clear thioredoxin and thioredoxin reductase homologs. A large chromosomal inversion was discovered when two available Tropheryma Whipplei genome sequences were aligned. The extremeties are located within two paralogous genes, which belong to a large cell-surface protein family defined by the presence of a common repeat highly conserved at the nucleotide level. It is these repeats that seem to spark a rearrangements in the Trophermya Whipplei. This, in turn, causes a varying expression of cell surface proteins, and thereby may be a new mechanism it uses to evade host defenses.
Cell structure and metabolism
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Ecology
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Pathology
How does this organism cause disease? Human, animal, plant hosts? Virulence factors, as well as patient symptoms.
Application to Biotechnology
Does this organism produce any useful compounds or enzymes? What are they and how are they used?
Current Research
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References
Edited by student of Rachel Larsen and Kit Pogliano
