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Nature 422, 888-893 (24 April 2003) | doi:10.1038/nature01597; Received 23 October 2002; Accepted 11 March 2003

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Unique physiological and pathogenic features of Leptospira interrogans revealed by whole-genome sequencing

Shuang-Xi Ren1,2,3, Gang Fu1,4,3, Xiu-Gao Jiang5,3, Rong Zeng2,3, You-Gang Miao2, Hai Xu2, Yi-Xuan Zhang2, Hui Xiong4, Gang Lu1, Ling-Feng Lu1, Hong-Quan Jiang1,4, Jia Jia1, Yue-Feng Tu1, Ju-Xing Jiang6, Wen-Yi Gu1, Yue-Qing Zhang1,7, Zhen Cai1, Hai-Hui Sheng1, Hai-Feng Yin1, Yi Zhang1, Gen-Feng Zhu1, Ma Wan5, Hong-Lei Huang5, Zhen Qian1, Sheng-Yue Wang1, Wei Ma2, Zhi-Jian Yao6, Yan Shen6, Bo-Qin Qiang6, Qi-Chang Xia2, Xiao-Kui Guo4, Antoine Danchin8, Isabelle Saint Girons9, Ronald L. Somerville10, Yu-Mei Wen7, Man-Hua Shi5,11, Zhu Chen1,4, Jian-Guo Xu5 & Guo-Ping Zhao1,2

  1. Chinese National Human Genome Center at Shanghai (CHGCS), 250 Bi Bo Road, Zhang Jiang High Tech Park, Shanghai 201203, China
  2. Bioinformation Center/Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology/Institute of Plant Physiology and Ecology/Research Center of Biotechnology, Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 320 Yue Yang Road, Shanghai 200031, China
  3. Rui Jin Hospital/Department of Microbiology and Parasitology, Shanghai Second Medical University, 280 Chongqingnan Road, Shanghai 200025, China
  4. National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (ICDC, China CDC), P.O. Box 5, Changping, Beijing 102206, China
  5. Chinese National Human Genome Center, Beijing, 707 North Yongchang Road, Yi Zhuang High Tech Park, Beijing 100170, China
  6. Department of Molecular Virology, Medical Center, Fudan University, 138 Yi Xue Yuan Road, Shanghai 200032, China
  7. HKU-Pasteur Research Centre, 8, Sassoon Road, Hong Kong, China
  8. Unité de Bactériologie Moléculaire et Médicale, Institut Pasteur, 25, rue du docteur Roux, 75724 Paris Cedex15, France
  9. Department of Biochemistry, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA
  10. These authors contributed equally to this work
  11. Deceased

Correspondence to: Guo-Ping Zhao1,2 Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to G.-P.Z. (e-mail: Email: gpzhao@sibs.ac.cn). The sequences have been submitted to NCBI under accession numbers GB: AE010300 and GB: AE010301 for the large (CI) and small (CII) chromosomes, respectively.

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Leptospirosis is a widely spread disease of global concern. Infection causes flu-like episodes with frequent severe renal and hepatic damage, such as haemorrhage and jaundice. In more severe cases, massive pulmonary haemorrhages, including fatal sudden haemoptysis, can occur1. Here we report the complete genomic sequence of a representative virulent serovar type strain (Lai)2 of Leptospira interrogans serogroup Icterohaemorrhagiae consisting of a 4.33-megabase large chromosome and a 359-kilobase small chromosome, with a total of 4,768 predicted genes. In terms of the genetic determinants of physiological characteristics, the facultatively parasitic L. interrogans differs extensively from two other strictly parasitic pathogenic spirochaetes, Treponema pallidum3 and Borrelia burgdorferi4, although similarities exist in the genes that govern their unique morphological features. A comprehensive analysis of the L. interrogans genes for chemotaxis/motility and lipopolysaccharide synthesis provides a basis for in-depth studies of virulence and pathogenesis. The discovery of a series of genes possibly related to adhesion, invasion and the haematological changes that characterize leptospirosis has provided clues about how an environmental organism might evolve into an important human pathogen.