Helicobacter hepaticus
| H. hepaticus | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Helicobacter hepaticus | ||||||||||||
| Fox et al., 1994 |
Helicobacter hepaticus is a gram-negative , microaerophilic bacterium that is found in the intestines and liver of mice and can cause liver inflammation and cancer. It is a close relative of Helicobacter pylori , whichplays an important rolein humans as a causative agent of gastric cancer .
Mainly because of its close relationship with H. pylori , this bacterium is of importance for cancer research , because it is hoped that its pathogenicity in mice will allow conclusions to be drawn about the development of cancer in humans.
Genome research
As part of the genome research project GenoMik was genome of H. hepaticus in 2003 completely decoded. It was a joint project of Sebastian Suerbaum's working group at the Institute for Medical Microbiology at the Hannover Medical School , the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the USA, as well as the companies MWG Biotech AG and GeneData . An important result of the genome sequencing was the identification of a genome region with a low GC content (indication of the acquisition of this region through horizontal gene transfer), which contains several possible virulence genes and represents a possible " pathogenicity island " (HHGI1).
literature
- Suerbaum S, Josenhans C, Sterzenbach T, Drescher B, Brandt P, Bell M, Droge M, Fartmann B, Fischer HP, Ge Z, Horster A, Holland R, Klein K, Konig J, Macko L, Mendz GL, Nyakatura G. , Schauer DB, Shen Z, Weber J, Frosch M, Fox JG (2003): The complete genome sequence of the carcinogenic bacterium Helicobacter hepaticus. In: Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2003 Jun 24; 100 (13): 7901 PMID 12810954