Genome of Mycoplasma haemofelis, unraveling its strategies for survival and persistence

Abstract

Mycoplasma haemofelis is a mycoplasmal pathogen (hemoplasma) that attaches to the host's erythrocytes. Distributed worldwide, it has a significant impact on the health of cats causing acute disease and, despite treatment, establishing chronic infection. It might also have a role as a zoonotic agent, especially in immunocompromised patients. Whole genome sequencing and analyses of M. haemofelis strain Ohio2 was undertaken as a step toward understanding its survival and persistence. Metabolic pathways are reduced, relying on the host to supply many of the nutrients and metabolites needed for survival. M. haemofelis must import glucose for ATP generation and ribose derivates for RNA/DNA synthesis. Hypoxanthine, adenine, guanine, uracil and CMP are scavenged from the environment to support purine and pyrimidine synthesis. In addition, nicotinamide, amino acids and any vitamins needed for growth, must be acquired from its environment. The core proteome of M. haemofelis contains an abundance of paralogous gene families, corresponding to 70.6% of all the CDSs. This "paralog pool" is a rich source of different antigenic epitopes that can be varied to elude the host's immune system and establish chronic infection. M. haemofelis also appears to be capable of phase variation, which is particularly relevant to the cyclic bacteremia and persistence, characteristics of the infection in the cat. The data generated herein should be of great use for understanding the mechanisms of M. haemofelis infection. Further, it will provide new insights into its pathogenicity and clues needed to formulate media to support the in vitro cultivation of M. haemofelis.

Emergence of Atypical Mycoplasma agalactiae Strains Harboring a New Prophage and Associated with an Alpine Wild Ungulate Mortality Episode

“…From an epidemiological perspective, our study shows the benefit of old and new molecular typing tools that can now be used to trace the M. agalactiae strains within the ibex population but also elsewhere. Optical mapping had never been used for mycoplasmas before except once, to validate the sequence assembly of the Mycoplasma haemofelis genome (25). In the present work, we confirmed the usefulness of the technique for this type of purpose and showed, in addition, that optical mapping is a good alternative to sequencing for defining the genetic relationship between two Mycoplasma isolates.…”

Microscopy and genomic analysis of Mycoplasma parvum strain Indiana

“…The general features of the genome of M. parvum strain Indiana regarding size, G + C content, percentage of coding sequences and paralogous genes were within the range of those described for all hemoplasmas sequenced to date [ 1 , 4 – 8 , 10 ] (Table 1 ). M. parvum ’s single circular chromosome of 564.395 Kb, the second smallest genome amongst all hemoplasmas, and even smaller than that of M. genitalium , which was previously considered the tiniest member of the Mollicutes (Table 1 ).…”

Mycoplasma haemocanis – the canine hemoplasma and its feline counterpart in the genomic era

“…As shown for M. haemofelis , metabolic pathways in M. haemocanis are reduced with many of the nutrients and metabolic precursors imported from the blood environment [24]. ATP and DNA/RNA biosynthesis depend on the transport from the environment of glucose and ribose/base derivates, respectively.…”