Presence of Bacterial Virulence Gene Homologues in the dibenzo-p-dioxins degrading bacterium Sphingomonas wittichii

Sphingomonas wittichii, a close relative of the human pathogen Sphingomonas paucimobilis, is a microorganism of great interest to the bioremediation community for its ability of biodegradation to a large number of toxic polychlorinated dioxins. In the present study we investigated the presence of different virulence factors and genes in S. wittichii. We utilized phylogenetic, comparative genomics and bioinformatics analysis to investigate the potentiality of S. wittichii as a potential virulent pathogen. The 16SrDNA phylogenetic tree showed that the closest bacterial taxon to S. wittichii is Brucella followed by Helicobacter, Campylobacter, Pseudomonas then Legionella. Despite their close phylogenetic relationship, S. wittichii did not share any virulence factors with Helicobacter or Campylobacter. On the contrary, in spite of the phylogenetic divergence between S. wittichii and Pseudomonas spp., they shared many major virulence factors, such as, adherence, antiphagocytosis, Iron uptake, proteases and quorum sensing. S. wittichii contains several major virulence factors resembling Pseudomonas sp., Legionella sp., Brucella sp. and Bordetella sp. virulence factors. Similarity of virulence factors did not match phylogenetic relationships. These findings suggest horizontal gene transfer of virulence factors rather than sharing a common pathogenic ancestor. S. wittichii is a potential virulent bacterium. Another possibility is that reductive evolution process attenuated S. wittichii pathogenic capabilities. Thus plenty of care must be taken when using this bacterium in soil remediation purposes.