GBE Comparative Genomics of Listeria Sensu Lato: Genus-Wide Differences in Evolutionary Dynamics and the Progressive Gain of Complex, Potentially Pathogenicity-Related Traits through Lateral Gene Transfer Matteo Chiara1,2, Marta Caruso2, Anna Maria D’Erchia3,4, Caterina Manzari4, Rosa Fraccalvieri2, Elisa Goffredo2, Laura Latorre2, Angela Miccolupo2, Iolanda Padalino2, Gianfranco Santagada2, Doriano Chiocco2, Graziano Pesole3,4, David S. Horner1,*, Antonio Parisi2,* 1Dipartimento di Bioscienze, Universita` degli Studi di Milano, Italy 2Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale della Puglia e della Basilicata, Foggia, Italy 3Dipartimento di Bioscienze, Biotecnologie e Biofarmaceutica, Universita` degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Italy 4Istituto di Biomembrane e Bioenergetica, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Bari, Italy *Corresponding author: E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected]. Accepted: July 6, 2015 Data deposition: The project has been deposited at the NCBI Sequence Read Archive (SRA) (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sra/) under Bioprojects PRJNAS230018 (Listeria fleischmannii) and PRJNA230017 (Listeria newyorkensis). Abstract Historically, genome-wide and molecular characterization of the genus Listeria has concentrated on the important human path- ogen Listeria monocytogenes and a small number of closely related species, together termed Listeria sensu strictu. More recently, a number of genome sequences for more basal, and nonpathogenic, members of the Listeria genus have become available, facil- itating a wider perspective on the evolution of pathogenicity and genome level evolutionary dynamics within the entire genus (termed Listeria sensu lato). Here, we have sequenced the genomes of additional Listeria fleischmannii and Listeria newyorkensis isolates and explored the dynamics of genome evolution in Listeria sensu lato. Our analyses suggest that acquisition of genetic material through gene duplication and divergence as well as through lateral gene transfer (mostly from outside Listeria)iswide- spread throughout the genus. Novel genetic material is apparently subject to rapid turnover. Multiple lines of evidence point to significant differences in evolutionary dynamics between the most basal Listeria subclade and all other congeners, including both sensu strictu and other sensu lato isolates. Strikingly, these differences are likely attributable to stochastic, population-level pro- cesses and contribute to observed variation in genome size across the genus. Notably, our analyses indicate that the common ancestor of Listeria sensu lato lacked flagella, which were acquired by lateral gene transfer by a common ancestor of Listeria grayi and Listeria sensu strictu, whereas a recently functionally characterized pathogenicity island, responsible for the capacity to produce cobalamin and utilize ethanolamine/propane-2-diol, was acquired in an ancestor of Listeria sensu strictu. Key words: Listeria, genome sequencing, comparative genomics, lateral gene transfer, cobalamin, ethanolamine metabolism, propane-2-diol metabolism, flagella. Introduction marthii, Listeria innocua, Listeria welshimeri, Listeria seeligeri, Historically, genome-wide and molecular characterization of and Listeria ivanovii. Together, these six species, all of which the genus Listeria has concentrated on the important human are capable of growth within higher vertebrate hosts, are pathogen Listeria monocytogenes (for which the genomes of known as Listeria sensu strictu, and various studies have fo- around 100 isolates have been sequenced) and a relatively cused on the identification and characterization of virulence restricted number of closely related species including Listeria factors that determine the differential capacity of many ß The Author(s) 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits non- commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] 2154 Genome Biol. Evol. 7(8):2154–2172. doi:10.1093/gbe/evv131 Advance Access publication July 15, 2015 Comparative Genomics of Listeria GBE L. monocytogenes and L. ivanovii isolates to cause disease in available basal Listeria genomes, indicates a nonpathogenic, mammals. Indeed, pathogenicity correlates well with the nonmotile ancestor of extant Listeria species. Genome evolu- presence of intact virulence genes that facilitate direct tion is characterized by gene gain by lateral transfer (predom- interaction between bacteria and host cells—promoting inantly from outside the genus) and gene duplication—as well colonization, entry into and death of host cells (Mishra et al. as by gene loss. Throughout Listeria sensu lato, genome size 2011). In particular, the virulence gene cluster (LIPI-1) and dN/dS ratio show significant negative correlation, sug- promotes cytosolic replication as well as intra- and intercellular gesting that rates of genetic drift underlie at least some of movement (Portnoy et al. 1992). A second cluster required for the observed variability in evolutionary dynamics. In particular, virulence contains an operon of two genes (inlA/B) that the larger genomes of the most basal subclade of Listeria are encode internalins necessary for the attachment to and inva- associated with an increased rate of gene gain with respect to sion of nonphagocytic host cells (Hamon et al. 2006). other Listeria. Concentrated episodes of gene gain are inferred Additionally L. ivanovii harbors a specific genetic island with to have occurred along several major internal branches of the virulence factors called LIPI-2, comprising of multiple interna- Listeria phylogeny, in particular, the entire flagella apparatus lins and the smcL sphingomyelinase hemolysis gene was acquired by a common ancestor of L. grayi and the Listeria (Dominguez-Bernal et al. 2006). Phylogenomic analyses of sensu strictu clade, possibly through lateral gene transfer (LGT) Listeria sensu strictu suggest that nonpathogenic species from a Bacillus cereus-like organism. Furthermore, a recently evolved from a pathogenic ancestor through differential loss characterized pathogenicity island encoding genes involved in of pathogenicity factors (Schmid et al. 2005). ethanolamine/propane-2-diol/cobalamin metabolism was ac- Besides the Listeria sensu strictu group, other, more diver- quired and assembled, potentially from several donors, by a gent and presumably basal nonpathogenic species have long common ancestor of Listeria sensu strictu. been known and more recently, many of these, as well as newly discovered congeners and representatives of the Materials and Methods genus Brochothrix (Weller et al. 2014)—the presumed sister group to Listeria—have been subjected to whole-genome se- Whole-Genome Sequencing quencing and phylogenetic analysis of concatenated core Genomic DNA was extracted from the Listeria-like isolates gene sets. Listeria grayi susbsp.grayi(DSM 20601, GenBank using the QIAmp DNA mini kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany), accession number ACCR00000000) and L. grayi subsp. mur- according to the manufacturer’s protocol. An indexed geno- rayi (ATCC25401), isolated from vegetation (Welshimer and mic library for each Listeria-like isolate was prepared using the Meredith 1971) and sequenced by den Bakker et al. (2014), Nextera XT DNA sample preparation kit (Illumina, San Diego, represent the sister taxon to the Listeria sensu strictu group. CA), and a 2 Â 250 paired-end sequencing run was per- Listeria fleischmannii (susbsp. fleischmannii [from cheese] formed on Illumina MiSeq platform. [Bertsch et al. 2012], subsp. coloradonensis [from agricultural environments] [den Bakker et al. 2013]) and L. fleischmannii Sequence Data Preprocessing FSL S10-1203 (den Bakker et al. 2014), along with Listeria floridensis and Listeria aquatica (both from running water) A custom script implementing strict quality filters based on the (den Bakker et al. 2014), constitute the sister clade to provided base call quality scores was used to trim sequences Listeria sensustrictuandL. grayi (Weller et al. 2014). Listeria reads prior to assembly. Reads were iteratively trimmed from rocourtiae (from lettuce leaves) (Leclercq et al. 2009; den the 30-end until all of the following conditions were satisfied: Bakker et al. 2014), Listeria cornellensis, Listeria riparia and 1. The median quality score (Qscore) of upstream bases was Listeria grandensis (all from water/agricultural environments) >25. (den Bakker et al. 2014), Listeria weihenstephanensis (from 2. Less than three bases with Qscore 10 and less than five aquatic vegetation) (Lang Halter et al. 2013; den Bakker bases with Qscore 20 were present in the upstream et al. 2014), Listeria booriae (from seafood) (Weller et al. sequence. 2014), and Listeria newyorkensis (from a milk processing 3. The cumulative error probability in the upstream region plant) (Weller et al. 2014) constitute the basal clade in the was below 0.01. genus (Weller et al. 2014). Representatives of the L. fleisch- mannii and L. rocourtiae clades have been reported to be nonmotile (den Bakker et al. 2014). Their possible role as ge- Genome Assembly and Annotation netic reservoirs of genes that might be transferred to sensu The velvet (Zerbino and Birney 2008)programwasusedfor strictu species remains to be