Unravelling the transcriptome profile of the Swine respiratory tract mycoplasmas

PLoS One. 2014 Oct 15;9(10):e110327. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0110327. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

The swine respiratory ciliary epithelium is mainly colonized by Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, Mycoplasma flocculare and Mycoplasma hyorhinis. While colonization by M. flocculare is virtually asymptomatic, M. hyopneumoniae and M. hyorhinis infections may cause respiratory disease. Information regarding transcript structure and gene abundance provides valuable insight into gene function and regulation, which has not yet been analyzed on a genome-wide scale in these Mycoplasma species. In this study, we report the construction of transcriptome maps for M. hyopneumoniae, M. flocculare and M. hyorhinis, which represent data for conducting comparative studies on the transcriptional repertory. For each species, three cDNA libraries were generated, yielding averages of 415,265, 695,313 and 93,578 reads for M. hyopneumoniae, M. flocculare and M. hyorhinis, respectively, with an average read length of 274 bp. The reads mapping showed that 92%, 98% and 96% of the predicted genes were transcribed in the M. hyopneumoniae, M. flocculare and M. hyorhinis genomes, respectively. Moreover, we showed that the majority of the genes are co-expressed, confirming the previously predicted transcription units. Finally, our data defined the RNA populations in detail, with the map transcript boundaries and transcription unit structures on a genome-wide scale.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adhesins, Bacterial / genetics
  • Animals
  • Chromosome Mapping
  • Computational Biology / methods
  • DNA, Complementary
  • Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial*
  • Genome, Bacterial
  • Genomics
  • High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing
  • Mycoplasma / genetics*
  • Mycoplasma Infections / veterinary*
  • RNA, Untranslated / genetics
  • Respiratory Tract Infections / veterinary*
  • Swine
  • Swine Diseases / microbiology*
  • Transcription, Genetic
  • Transcriptome*

Substances

  • Adhesins, Bacterial
  • DNA, Complementary
  • RNA, Untranslated

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), the Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES), the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio Grande do Sul (FAPERGS) and the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ). FMS has received scholarships from CAPES. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.