Genomic Interrogation of the Dassie Bacillus Reveals It as a Unique RD1 Mutant within the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex

ABSTRACT Despite their remarkable genetic homology, members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex express very different phenotypes, most notably in their spectra of clinical presentation. For example, M. tuberculosis is regarded as pathogenic to humans, whereas members having deleted RD1, such as Mycobacterium microti and Mycobacterium bovis BCG, are not. The dassie bacillus, an infrequent variant of the M. tuberculosis complex characterized as being most similar to M. microti, is the causative agent of tuberculosis (TB) in the dassie (Procavia capensis). Intriguingly, the dassie bacillus is not pathogenic to rabbits or guinea pigs and has never been documented to infect humans. Although it was identified more than a half-century ago, the reasons behind its attenuation are unknown. Because large sequence polymorphisms have presented themselves as the most obvious genomic distinction among members of the M. tuberculosis complex, the DNA content of the dassie bacillus was interrogated by Affymetrix GeneChip to identify regions that are absent from it but present in M. tuberculosis H37Rv. Comparison has led to the identification of nine regions of difference (RD), five of which are shared with M. microti (RDs 3, 7, 8, 9, and 10). Although the dassie bacillus does not share the other documented deletions in M. microti (RD1mic, RD5mic, MID1, MID2, and MID3), it has endured unique deletions in the regions of RD1, RD5, N-RD25, and Rv3081-Rv3082c (virS). RD1das, affecting only Rv3874-Rv3877, is the smallest natural deletion of the RD1 region uncovered and points to genes within this region that are likely implicated in virulence. Newfound deletions from the dassie bacillus are discussed in relation to their evolutionary and biological significance.