Comparative genomics and phylogenomics ofCampylobacterunveil potential novel species and provide insights into niche segregation

Abstract

AbstractCampylobacteris a bacterial genus associated with community outbreaks and gastrointestinal symptoms. Studies onCampylobactergenerally focus on specific pathogenic species such asC. coliandC. jejuni. Currently, there are thousands of publicly availableCampylobactergenomes, allowing a more complete assessment of the genus diversity. In this work, we report a network-based analysis of all availableCampylobactergenomes to explore the genus structure and diversity, revealing potentially new species and elucidating genus features. We also hypothesize that the previously established Clade III ofC. coliis in fact a novel species (referred here asCampylobacter spp12). Finally, we found a negative correlation between pangenome fluidity and saturation coefficient, with potential implications to the lifestyles of distinctCampylobacterspecies. Since pangenome analysis depends on the number of available genomes, this correlation could help estimate pangenome metrics ofCampylobacterspecies with less sequenced genomes, helping understand their lifestyle and niche adaptation. Together, our results indicate that theCampylobactergenus should be re-evaluated, with particular attention to the interplay between genome structure and niche segregation.