The branch length index is represented below each tree. Country of origin is located at the beginning

of each strain designation (Pt, Portugal; Br, Brazil; Col, Colombia; BF, Burkina EX-527 Faso) followed by the homB or homA status. In Fig. 4A, the dotted line separates the homB and homA clusters. The numbers next to the main nodes are bootstrap values over 75% after 1000 iterations. JNK-IN-8 datasheet allelic variation In both gene segments 1 and 3, the sequences were conserved between and within homB and homA genes (% of similarity >76% in segment 1 and >85% in segment 3) (Fig. 3). However, within segment 1, a region spanning from approximately 470 to 690 bp allowed the discrimination of homB and homA genes (arrow in Fig. 3). Gene segment 2, spanning from approximately 750 to 1050 bp in homB and from 720 to 980 bp in homA, was extremely polymorphic in both genes, with nucleotide differences selleck chemicals llc being detected among the two genes and within sequences of the same gene from different strains (Fig. 3). This polymorphism is consistent with the highest nucleotide substitution rate observed for this gene segment. The detailed analysis of the previously mentioned 124 nucleotide and predicted amino acid sequences of segment 2 of homB and homA genes

revealed the existence of six distinct and well conserved allelic variants, named AI, AII, AIII, AIV, AV and AVI (Fig. 5). The homB gene exhibited greater

allelic diversity than homA gene, with five and three allelic variants, respectively. Two predominant allelic variants were observed: allele AI, detected in 78.9% of the homB sequences and exclusive of this gene, and AII, observed in 84.9% of homA sequences and in 11.3% of homB sequences. The four other allelic variants were less frequent: AIII was present in 4.2% and 11.3% filipin of homB and homA genes, respectively; AIV was exclusively present in 3.8% of homA genes; and finally AV and AVI were exclusively present in 1.4% and 4.2% of homB, respectively. Figure 5 Amino acid alignment of 22 homB and homA allelic region fragments from segment 2 (720 to 1050 bp; predicted amino acids 240 to 350), showing the six allelic variants. The sequence of the homB product of the J99 strain was used as reference (Genbank accession number NP_223588). The dots refer to sites where the amino acids match those of the reference sequence, the hyphens represent deletions. The boxes are used to separate the 6 different allele groups named AI to AVI. Country of origin is located at the beginning of each strain designation (Pt, Portugal; Sw, Sweden; Gr, Germany; USA; Br, Brazil; Jp, Japan; BF, Burkina Faso). * Allelic variants exclusive of homB; † allelic variant exclusive of homA.