IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/nature/v403y2000i6770d10.1038_35001088.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The genome sequence of the food-borne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni reveals hypervariable sequences

Author

Listed:
  • J. Parkhill

    (The Sanger Centre, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton)

  • B. W. Wren

    (The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)

  • K. Mungall

    (The Sanger Centre, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton)

  • J. M. Ketley

    (University of Leicester)

  • C. Churcher

    (The Sanger Centre, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton)

  • D. Basham

    (The Sanger Centre, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton)

  • T. Chillingworth

    (The Sanger Centre, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton)

  • R. M. Davies

    (The Sanger Centre, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton)

  • T. Feltwell

    (The Sanger Centre, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton)

  • S. Holroyd

    (The Sanger Centre, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton)

  • K. Jagels

    (The Sanger Centre, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton)

  • A. V. Karlyshev

    (The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine)

  • S. Moule

    (The Sanger Centre, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton)

  • M. J. Pallen

    (Queen's University Belfast)

  • C. W. Penn

    (School of Biosciences, University of Birmingham)

  • M. A. Quail

    (The Sanger Centre, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton)

  • M-A. Rajandream

    (The Sanger Centre, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton)

  • K. M. Rutherford

    (The Sanger Centre, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton)

  • A. H. M. van Vliet

    (Faculty of Medicine, Vrije Universiteit)

  • S. Whitehead

    (The Sanger Centre, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton)

  • B. G. Barrell

    (The Sanger Centre, The Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Hinxton)

Abstract

Campylobacter jejuni, from the delta-epsilon group of proteobacteria, is a microaerophilic, Gram-negative, flagellate, spiral bacterium—properties it shares with the related gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori. It is the leading cause of bacterial food-borne diarrhoeal disease throughout the world1. In addition, infection with C. jejuni is the most frequent antecedent to a form of neuromuscular paralysis known as Guillain–Barré syndrome2. Here we report the genome sequence of C. jejuni NCTC11168. C. jejuni has a circular chromosome of 1,641,481 base pairs (30.6% G+C) which is predicted to encode 1,654 proteins and 54 stable RNA species. The genome is unusual in that there are virtually no insertion sequences or phage-associated sequences and very few repeat sequences. One of the most striking findings in the genome was the presence of hypervariable sequences. These short homopolymeric runs of nucleotides were commonly found in genes encoding the biosynthesis or modification of surface structures, or in closely linked genes of unknown function. The apparently high rate of variation of these homopolymeric tracts may be important in the survival strategy of C. jejuni.

Suggested Citation

  • J. Parkhill & B. W. Wren & K. Mungall & J. M. Ketley & C. Churcher & D. Basham & T. Chillingworth & R. M. Davies & T. Feltwell & S. Holroyd & K. Jagels & A. V. Karlyshev & S. Moule & M. J. Pallen & C., 2000. "The genome sequence of the food-borne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni reveals hypervariable sequences," Nature, Nature, vol. 403(6770), pages 665-668, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:403:y:2000:i:6770:d:10.1038_35001088
    DOI: 10.1038/35001088
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/35001088
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/35001088?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Christopher Ruis & Aaron Weimann & Gerry Tonkin-Hill & Arun Prasad Pandurangan & Marta Matuszewska & Gemma G. R. Murray & Roger C. Lévesque & Tom L. Blundell & R. Andres Floto & Julian Parkhill, 2023. "Mutational spectra are associated with bacterial niche," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 14(1), pages 1-11, December.
    2. Kathrin Froschauer & Sarah L. Svensson & Rick Gelhausen & Elisabetta Fiore & Philipp Kible & Alicia Klaude & Martin Kucklick & Stephan Fuchs & Florian Eggenhofer & Chao Yang & Daniel Falush & Susanne , 2025. "Complementary Ribo-seq approaches map the translatome and provide a small protein census in the foodborne pathogen Campylobacter jejuni," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-19, December.
    3. Fabian König & Sarah L. Svensson & Cynthia M. Sharma, 2024. "Interplay of two small RNAs fine-tunes hierarchical flagella gene expression in Campylobacter jejuni," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-21, December.
    4. Martin Ackermann & Lin Chao, 2006. "DNA Sequences Shaped by Selection for Stability," PLOS Genetics, Public Library of Science, vol. 2(2), pages 1-7, February.
    5. Martina O. Chukwu & Akebe Luther King Abia & Eunice Ubomba-Jaswa & Lawrence Obi & John Barr Dewar, 2019. "Characterization and Phylogenetic Analysis of Campylobacter Species Isolated from Paediatric Stool and Water Samples in the Northwest Province, South Africa," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(12), pages 1-22, June.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:nature:v:403:y:2000:i:6770:d:10.1038_35001088. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.