Comparative Genomic Analysis of Campylobacter jejuni cj255 Reveals Diverse Genetics, Pathogenicity Determinants and Variation in T6SS

Abstract

Campylobacter jejuni mostly associated is a main reason of gastroenteritis. In the current study, we conducted the extensive genome wide comparative analysis of C. jejuni strain cj255 recovered from chicken in the area of Islamabad Pakistan. C. jejuni strain cj255 genomes comprises of 1,634,595 nucleotide bases, exhibiting about 98% similarity with human pathogenic strain 81116.3, encoding 1711 coding sequences and 39 RNAs. Overall, diverse virulence as well as antibiotic resistance genes such as T6SS were noted among these C. jejuni strain cj255 species. Most interesting characteristics of cj255 is the presence of the single locus Type VI secretion system (T6SS) with conserved as well as accessory components similar to strain 001597 while absent in strains 11168, 81116 and RM1221. The derived phylogenetic tree also suggests a possible evolutionary history for these strains and their T6SS cluster. Moreover, ClpB T6SS gene was present among all these strains. Moreover, extensive non-coding RNA prediction studies revealed functionally important non-coding RNAs. The study shows the extensive genetic diversity of C. jejuni strain cj255 and other selected strains for T6SS as well as other virulence factors and paves the way for identifying these strains and the pathogenetic co-relation for establishing better epidemiological tools to understand this complex pathogen of strains resourced from Pakistan.