AUTHOR=Manoharan-Basil Sheeba Santhini , Laumen Jolein Gyonne Elise , Van Dijck Christophe , De Block Tessa , De Baetselier Irith , Kenyon Chris 

TITLE=Evidence of Horizontal Gene Transfer of 50S Ribosomal Genes rplB, rplD, and rplY in Neisseria gonorrhoeae

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=Volume 12 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2021.683901

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2021.683901

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=Horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in the penA and mtrCDE genes has been shown to play a key role in the genesis of antimicrobial resistance in N. gonorrhoeae. In this study, we evaluated if there was evidence of HGT in the genes coding for the ribosomal proteins in the Neisseria genus. We did this in a collection of 11,659 isolates of Neisseria, including N. gonorrhoeae and commensal Neisseria species (N. cinerea, N. elongata, N. flavescens, N. mucosa, N. polysaccharea, and N. subflava). Comparative genomic analyses identified HGT events in three genes: rplB, rplD, and rplY coding for ribosomal proteins L2, L4 and L25, respectively. Recombination events were predicted in N. gonorrhoeae; N. cinerea, N. subflava, and N. lactamica were identified as likely progenitors for rplB, rplD and rplY, respectively. In total, 2337, 2355, and 1127 isolates possessed L2, L4, and L25 HGT events. Strong associations were found between HGT in L2/L4 and the C2597T 23S rRNA mutation that confers reduced susceptibility to macrolides. Whilst previous studies have found evidence of HGT of entire genes coding for ribosomal proteins in other bacterial species, this is the first study to find evidence of HGT-mediated chimerization of ribosomal proteins.