Journal article

Impact of insertion sequences on convergent evolution of Shigella species

Jane Hawkey, Jonathan M Monk, Helen Billman-Jacobe, Bernhard Palsson, Kathryn E Holt

PLOS GENETICS | PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE | Published : 2020

Abstract

Shigella species are specialised lineages of Escherichia coli that have converged to become human-adapted and cause dysentery by invading human gut epithelial cells. Most studies of Shigella evolution have been restricted to comparisons of single representatives of each species; and population genomic studies of individual Shigella species have focused on genomic variation caused by single nucleotide variants and ignored the contribution of insertion sequences (IS) which are highly prevalent in Shigella genomes. Here, we investigate the distribution and evolutionary dynamics of IS within populations of Shigella dysenteriae Sd1, Shigella sonnei and Shigella flexneri. We find that five IS (IS1..

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University of Melbourne Researchers

Grants

Awarded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation


Awarded by NIH NIAID


Funding Acknowledgements

KEH was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1175797) and the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation (Senior Medical Research Fellowship). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. JMM and BP were supported by Grant 1-U01-AI124316 from the NIH NIAID. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.