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Background   Corynebacterium ulcerans  has been detected as a commensal in domestic and wild animals that may serve as reservoirs for zoonotic infections. During the last decade, the frequency and severity of human infections associated with  C. ulcerans  appear to be increasing in various countries. As the knowledge of genes contributing to the virulence of this bacterium was very limited, the complete genome sequences of two  C. ulcerans  strains detected in the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro were determined and characterized by comparative genomics:  C. ulcerans  809 was initially isolated from an elderly woman with fatal pulmonary infection and  C. ulcerans  BR-AD22 was recovered from a nasal sample of an asymptomatic dog.    Results  The circular chromosome of  C. ulcerans  809 has a total size of 2,502,095 bp and encodes 2,182 predicted proteins, whereas the genome of  C. ulcerans  BR-AD22 is 104,279 bp larger and comprises 2,338 protein-coding regions. The minor difference in size of the two genomes is mainly caused by additional prophage-like elements in the  C. ulcerans  BR-AD22 chromosome. Both genomes show a highly similar order of orthologous coding regions; and both strains share a common set of 2,076 genes, demonstrating their very close relationship. A screening for prominent virulence factors revealed the presence of phospholipase D (Pld), neuraminidase H (NanH), endoglycosidase E (EndoE), and subunits of adhesive pili of the SpaDEF type that are encoded in both  C. ulcerans  genomes. The  rbp  gene coding for a putative ribosome-binding protein with striking structural similarity to Shiga-like toxins was additionally detected in the genome of the human isolate  C. ulcerans  809.    Conclusions  The molecular data deduced from the complete genome sequences provides considerable knowledge of virulence factors in  C. ulcerans  that is increasingly recognized as an emerging pathogen. This bacterium is apparently equipped with a broad and varying set of virulence factors, including a novel type of a ribosome-binding protein. Whether the respective protein contributes to the severity of human infections (and a fatal outcome) remains to be elucidated by genetic experiments with defined bacterial mutants and host model systems.

Comparative analysis of two complete Corynebacterium ulcerans genomes and detection of candidate virulence factors