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Scientic Reports | (2021) 11:18789 |
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Genome‑wide estimation
of recombination, mutation
and positive selection
enlightens diversication drivers
of Mycobacterium bovis
Ana C. Reis1,2 & Mónica V. Cunha1,2*
Genome sequencing has reinvigorated the infectious disease research eld, shedding light on disease
epidemiology, pathogenesis, host–pathogen interactions and also evolutionary processes exerted
upon pathogens. Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC), enclosing M. bovis as one of its
animal‑adapted members causing tuberculosis (TB) in terrestrial mammals, is a paradigmatic model
of bacterial evolution. As other MTBC members, M. bovis is postulated as a strictly clonal, slowly
evolving pathogen, with apparently no signs of recombination or horizontal gene transfer. In this
work, we applied comparative genomics to a whole genome sequence (WGS) dataset composed by
70 M. bovis from dierent lineages (European and African) to gain insights into the evolutionary forces
that shape genetic diversication in M. bovis. Three distinct approaches were used to estimate signs
of recombination. Globally, a small number of recombinant events was identied and conrmed by
two independent methods with solid support. Still, recombination reveals a weaker eect on M. bovis
diversity compared with mutation (overall r/m = 0.037). The dierential r/m average values obtained
across the clonal complexes of M. bovis in our dataset are consistent with the general notion that
the extent of recombination may vary widely among lineages assigned to the same taxonomical
species. Based on this work, recombination in M. bovis cannot be excluded and should thus be a
topic of further eort in future comparative genomics studies for which WGS of large datasets from
dierent epidemiological scenarios across the world is crucial. A smaller M. bovis dataset (n = 42) from
a multi‑host TB endemic scenario was then subjected to additional analyses, with the identication
of more than 1,800 sites wherein at least one strain showed a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP).
The majority (87.1%) was located in coding regions, with the global ratio of non‑synonymous upon
synonymous alterations (dN/dS) exceeding 1.5, suggesting that positive selection is an important
evolutionary force exerted upon M. bovis. A higher percentage of SNPs was detected in genes enriched
into “lipid metabolism”, “cell wall and cell processes” and “intermediary metabolism and respiration”
functional categories, revealing their underlying importance in M. bovis biology and evolution. A closer
look on genes prone to horizontal gene transfer in the MTBC ancestor and included in the 3R (DNA
repair, replication and recombination) system revealed a global average negative value for Taijima’s
D neutrality test, suggesting that past selective sweeps and population expansion after a recent
bottleneck remain as major evolutionary drivers of the obligatory pathogen M. bovis in its struggle
with the host.
e Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) is one of the most successful taxon of bacterial pathogens
and a paradigmatic case in bacterial evolution, revealing a strikingly high nucleotide identity at the genome
level (> 99%) among its members1,2. e dierent MTBC ecotypes cause tuberculosis (TB), an infectious granu-
lomatous disease, in a broad group of host species, ranging from micro-mammals to humans3–5. Currently, the
OPEN
*
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complex encompasses human [M. tuberculosis (Mtb), M. africanum] and animal-adapted pathogens (M. bovis,
M. caprae, M. pinnipedii, M. microti, M. mungi, M. orygis, M. suricattae, “chimpanzee bacillus” and “dassie
bacillus”)5,6. M. canettii (also known as “smooth tubercle bacilli”) has an average nucleotide identity of 98%
with the aforementioned mycobacteria and comparative genomic works suggest that M. canettii and the rest of
MTBC have diverged very recently from a common ancestor7. Considering this notion, several authors refer to
M. canettii as an MTBC member8.
e MTBC has been systematically described as a strictly clonal complex, with population structure being
apparently dominated by reductions in diversity, bottlenecks, selective sweeps and genetic dris9,10. Assuming the
strictly clonal evolution of the complex, polymorphisms such as deletions cannot be restored by recombination9.
Based on this premise, the successive events of genomic deletions of the regions of dierence (RD) and TbD1
(Mtb specic deletion 1 region) have been proposed as molecular markers of MTBC evolution2,5,11. Compara-
tive genomics and whole genome sequencing (WGS) works support the division of human-adapted members
into nine lineages (M. tuberculosis L1 to L4, L7 and L8; and M. africanum L5, L6 and L9), with lineages L2 to L4
sharing the deletion of TbD1 region2,11–13. Moreover, animal-adapted members have been proposed to share a
common ancestor and are dened by clade-specic deletions in the RD7, RD8, RD9 and RD102,5,14.
Events of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and recombination are assumed to be rare and to have occurred in
the ancestors of MTBC, rather than throughout the diverging history of MTBC members15–17. Two early reports
by Hughes and collaborators (2002) and Gutacker and collaborators (2006) suggested that recombination events
might have helped to shape the polymorphisms marking specic loci of M. tuberculosis strains18,19. e appar-
ent absence of recombination in MTBC has been attributed to: (1) loss of mechanistic processes and ability for
HGT; (2) rareness of HGT events; and (3) no opportunity for recombination events within MTBC ecological
niches14,17. More recently, a few Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) studies applied to MTBC strains20 and M.
bovis21 provided evidences of recombination, with the rst suggesting that MTBC strains frequently exchange
small DNA fragments, but because of the limited nucleotide sequence variation, these events remain unnoticed.
Mycobacterium bovis is the MTBC member most frequently recovered from livestock, mainly cattle, although
it can also be isolated from free-ranging and fenced wildlife4,22–24. M. bovis evolved to ve main clonal complexes
[European 1 (Eu1), European 2 (Eu2), European 3 (Eu3), African 1 (Af1) and African 2 (Af2)], dened based
on spoligotyping prole, specic deletions and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in specic genes25–29.
ese clonal complexes evidence the diversity structure of M. bovis population and association with geographic
regions. Furthermore, a recent WGS work by Zimpel and collaborators (2020) devised an M. bovis SNP-based
phylogeny with over 1900 genomes, which suggested the existence of at least four distinct lineages in the world
(named Lb1 to Lb4), that are not entirely concordant with the previous dened clonal complexes, although
geographic specicities may also be conrmed30. ese authors performed phylogenetic and molecular dating
divergence analyses but did not investigate recombination30.
Previous works employing dierent molecular techniques such as spoligotyping, MIRU-VNTR (Mycobacte-
rial Interspersed Repetitive Unit-Variable Number of Tandem Repeat) and, more recently, SNP typing, revealed a
certain level of genetic diversity among M. bovis strains31–35. e dierentiation of genetic variants has become
a crucial tool to study disease epidemiology, contributing to gain insights into pathogenesis, virulence and dis-
ease transmission. e arrival of WGS methodologies opened the possibility to shed light into the evolutionary
drivers exerted upon M. bovis genomes during adaptation and persistence to dierent hosts and epidemiological
scenarios.
In this work, we take advantage of a comparative genomic analysis of a diverse M. bovis dataset (n = 70),
including isolates from dierent clonal complexes to gain insights into the evolutionary processes of M. bovis,
specically addressing phylogenetic relationships and recombination events. Complementary to this analysis,
the sub-dataset of M. bovis isolates (n = 42) obtained from a well characterized multi-host TB endemic region
in Portugal31,36 was further explored to infer the balance between the relative rates of nonsynonymous (dN) to
synonymous (dS) nucleotide substitution, and the evolutionary contribution of specic groups of genes referred
to in the literature as having been acquired though HGT by the MTBC ancestor37,38, as well as genes encoding 3R
(DNA repair, replication and recombination) system components39. e genes proposed to be acquired through
HGT were selected since they may represent ancient polymorphisms, and so it is expected that they might contain
a higher fraction of synonymous alterations. e genes included in the 3R system were selected since previous
work performed with M. tuberculosis strains suggest a general negative/purifying selection acting upon these
genes and that they might play an important role in evolution39. Another objective of the work was to infer the
presence of recombination events. For this purpose, and considering that our dataset from Portugal only had
genomes included in European clonal complex 2 and strains without a clonal complex assigned, we decided to
include publicly available genomic data to end up with representatives from all clonal complexes and to increase
robustness and breadth of results.
Methodology
Mycobacterium bovis isolates dataset. Forty-two newly sequenced M. bovis genomes from an endemic
multi-host TB scenario in Portugal (details below), previously characterized from an epidemiological point of
view36, were at the centre of this work. Considering that the dataset from Portugal only has representatives of
European 2 clonal complex and strains without complex assigned, publicly available whole genome sequencing
data was added in order to enlarge the dataset with representatives from all M. bovis clonal complexes. erefore,
three sources of whole genome sequencing data were used in this work: complete/dra genome assemblies up
to a maximum of 10 scaolds deposited at NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information) (n = 15 iso-
lates); Illumina fastq les deposited at SRA (Sequence Read Archive) representative of M. bovis clonal complex
diversity (n = 12 isolates)30; and 42 newly sequenced genomes from Portugal. Mycobacterium bovis BCG (bacil-
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lus Calmette-Guérin) was excluded from the NCBI search. M. bovis AF2122/97 commonly used as reference
genome was included in the dataset. Due to the public unavailability of whole genome sequences from repre-
sentatives of African 1 clonal complex, and the low numbers of genomes from representative strains of Af2 and
Eu1, raw sequencing data available at SRA was used in those cases. e work of Zimpel and collaborators (2020)
helped in the identication of genomes from the aforementioned clonal complexes and in the selection process
of M. bovis to include in the dataset. For Eu3, only one type genome is described (Branger etal., 2020), thus the
genome that we included is the solo representative of the Eu3 complex.
Globally, the dataset included 70M. bovis isolated from eight host species, distributed by 12 countries between
1985 and 2016. irty-six were assigned as Eu2, seven as Eu1, one as Eu3, three as Af1, four as Af2 and 19 were
not attributed to any clonal complex (details below). Detailed information about the M. bovis used in this study
(including accession numbers) can be found in Table1 and Supplementary Table1.
Newly sequenced genomes (dataset from Portugal). Forty-two newly sequenced M. bovis whole genomes origi-
nating from animal TB hotspots in Portugal and scattering a period of over 12years were at the centre of this
study, as the underlying wildlife-livestock disease system has been monitored regularly31,36 (Supplementary
Fig.1). ese strains were isolated from cattle (n = 14), red deer (n = 16) and wild boar (n = 12) from 2003 to
2015, according to the ensuing procedure: animal tissue samples were pooled and processed following the pro-
tocol guidelines recommended in the OIE Manual for Terrestrial Animals and inoculated onto Stonebrink and
Löwenstein-Jensen pyruvate solid media and liquid medium. Cultures were incubated at 37°C and inspected
weekly for growth for a minimum period of 12weeks. Colonies were directly stored at glycerol solution at -80ºC.
e DNA for the WGS procedure was obtained aer a single invitro passage of original archived samples in
mycobacteria selective medium (Middlebrook 7H9, BD Diagnostics). For that purpose, frozen culture stocks
were re-cultured on Middlebrook 7H9 supplemented with 5% sodium pyruvate and 10% ADS enrichment (50g
albumin, 20g glucose, 8.5g sodium chloride in 1 L water) at 37°C. Aer four weeks’ growth, the culture medium
was renewed, and the cultures were monitored regularly until growth was observed. Cells were harvested by
centrifugation, the pellet was resuspended in 500 µL phosphate buer saline (PBS), heat-killed at 99°C during
30min, centrifuged, and the supernatant stored at -20°C until WGS. All procedures were performed on a level
3 biosecurity facility.
WGS paired-end genomic libraries were prepared with unique indexing of each DNA sample and sequenced
using Illumina MiSeq (2 × 250 pb) (40 samples) and HiSeq (2 × 150 pb) (two isolates) technology (Eurons
Genomics, Germany). e genomic DNA was sequenced using the Illumina Genome Analyser with the paired-
end module attachment and libraries were constructed with Nextera XT DNA Library Prep Kit from Illumina,
according to the manufacturer’s specications.
Clonal complex assignment. Considering the data recovered from SRA (n = 12), the clonal complex identica-
tion was available as metadata of the corresponding publications30,41,43. When considering complete genomes,
with the exception of M. bovis AF2122/97 and M. bovis 3601 that are recognized members of Eu1 and Eu3
clonal complexes, respectively25,29, whole genome alignment with M. tuberculosis H37Rv (NCBI accession
NC_000962.3) was performed using MAFFT (Multiple alignment program for amino acid or nucleotide sequences,
version 7.458) with parameter–addfragments48. en, the presence of the deletions and/or SNP characteristic of
the dierent clonal complexes was searched.
e newly sequenced M. bovis (n = 42) and raw reads from dra assembly genomes (n = 3) were aligned
with reference genome M. tuberculosis H37Rv via vSNP pipeline and the presence of the deletions and/or SNP
characteristic of the dierent clonal complexes was searched.
Information from the presence/absence of characteristic deletions and/or SNP and spoligotyping prole were
gathered to assign the genomic data to the corresponding clonal complex. For four dra assemblies it was not
possible to infer the spoligotyping prole, and so they were included in the “without complex” group.
Bioinformatics analysis. e bioinformatics workow followed in this work started from de novo assem-
bly and map to reference strategies, with the purpose to explore recombination events and the polymorphisms of
specic gene groups. Figure1 provides a owchart of the steps followed. For the recombination analysis, all the
genomes were used to increment the robustness of inferencesand the associated metrics.
De novo genome assembly. In order to mitigate errors in the generation of genome consensus sequences, we
rst obtained de novo assemblies and, then, the core multi-alignment. e Unicycler pipeline, currently avail-
able at https:// github. com/ rrwick/ Unicy cler49, was implemented to perform de novo assembly for 54 sequenced
genomes (42 newly sequenced and 12 fastq les recovered from SRA). Briey, before de novo assembly, reads
quality analysis was performed in FastQC version 0.11.7 (https:// github. com/s- andre ws/ FastQC), and whenever
necessary cleaned with Trimmomatic version 0.36 (options “cut adapter and other illumina-specic sequences
from the read” and “cut bases o the end of a read, if bellow a threshold quality of 20” were applied) (http:// www.
usade llab. org/ cms/? page= trimm omatic)50. en, SPAdes optimiser49 was used for genome assembly and Pilon
version 1.1851 for post-assembly optimization. A conservative bridging mode was selected to avoid misassemble
and the k-mer size was searched and selected between 20 and 95% of read length. Following SPAdes guidelines
and considering reads’ size, contigs with less than 300bp were removed and a 20 read depth coverage cut-o
was established52. In the de novo assembly strategy, no genome regions, such as the highly repetitive Proline-
Glutamate (PE) and Proline-Proline Glutamate (PPE) paralogous genes, were removed.
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M. bovis ID Clonal complex(a) Country Ye a r Host species References Type of sequence
Mb0220 w/o CC Portugal 2003 Cattle 40 Newly sequenced
Mb0261 Eu2 Portugal 2006 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb0601 Eu2 Portugal 2007 Cattle 40 Newly sequenced
Mb0769 Eu2 Portugal 2008 Cattle 40 Newly sequenced
Mb0783 Eu2 Portugal 2008 Wild boar 40 Newly sequenced
Mb0865 Eu2 Portugal 2008 Cattle 40 Newly sequenced
Mb0891 Eu2 Portugal 2009 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb0893 Eu2 Portugal 2008 Wild boar 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1317 Eu2 Portugal 2010 Cattle 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1339 Eu2 Portugal 2010 Cattle 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1458 w/o CC Portugal 2010 Wild boar 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1480 w/o CC Portugal 2010 Cattle 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1654 Eu2 Portugal 2011 Cattle 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1670 w/o CC Portugal 2011 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1711 Eu2 Portugal 2011 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1712 Eu2 Portugal 2011 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1714 Eu2 Portugal 2011 Cattle 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1744 w/o CC Portugal 2012 Wild boar 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1746 Eu2 Portugal 2012 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1758 Eu2 Portugal 2012 Cattle 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1769 Eu2 Portugal 2012 Wild boar 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1785 Eu2 Portugal 2012 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1789 Eu2 Portugal 2012 Cattle 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1841 Eu2 Portugal 2012 Cattle 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1870 Eu2 Portugal 2012 Wild boar 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1915 Eu2 Portugal 2013 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1948 w/o CC Portugal 2013 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb1960 Eu2 Portugal 2013 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb2026 Eu2 Portugal 2013 Cattle 40 Newly sequenced
Mb2043 Eu2 Portugal 2013 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb2067 Eu2 Portugal 2013 Wild boar 40 Newly sequenced
Mb2206 Eu2 Portugal 2014 Cattle 40 Newly sequenced
Mb2235 w/o CC Portugal 2014 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb2277 w/o CC Portugal 2014 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb2300 Eu2 Portugal 2014 Wild boar 40 Newly sequenced
Mb2310 Eu2 Portugal 2015 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb2313 Eu2 Portugal 2015 Wild boar 40 Newly sequenced
Mb2325 Eu2 Portugal 2015 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb2328 Eu2 Portugal 2015 Red deer 40 Newly sequenced
Mb2347 w/o CC Portugal 2015 Wild boar 40 Newly sequenced
Mb2395 Eu2 Portugal 2015 Wild boar 40 Newly sequenced
Mb2397 Eu2 Portugal 2015 Wild boar 40 Newly sequenced
Mb502499 Af1 Ghana NA Human 30,41 SRA deposited
Mb502526 Af1 Ghana NA Human 30,41 SRA deposited
Mb1203064 Af1 Ghana NA Human 30,41 SRA deposited
Mb4117155 Af2 France NA Wild boar 30,42 SRA deposited
Mb1791710 Af2 Tanzania NA Chimpanzee 30,43 SRA deposited
Mb1791712 Af2 Tanzania NA Chimpanzee 30,43 SRA deposited
Mb1792006 Eu1 USA 2006 Cattle 43 SRA deposited
Mb1792127 Eu1 USA 2008 Cattle 43 SRA deposited
Mb1792361 Eu1 USA 2013 Cattle 43 SRA deposited
Mb7240242 Eu1 USA 2016 Cattle 43 SRA deposited
Mb7240415 Eu1 USA 2014 Cattle 43 SRA deposited
Mb1791984 Eu1 USA 2005 Cattle 43 SRA deposited
MBE1 w/o CC Egypt 2014 Cattle NA assemble/dra genomes NCBI
MBE3 w/o CC Egypt 2014 Cattle NA assemble/dra genomes NCBI
Continued
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Table 1. Characteristics of Mycobacterium bovis genomes used in this work. Eu1: European 1, Eu2: European
2, Eu3: European 3, Af1: African 1, Af2: African 2, and w/o CC: without clonal complex. NA: non-available
information.
M. bovis ID Clonal complex(a) Country Ye a r Host species References Type of sequence
MBE4 w/o CC Egypt 2014 Cattle NA assemble/dra genomes NCBI
MBE10 w/o CC Egypt 2015 Cattle NA assemble/dra genomes NCBI
Mb0077 w/o CC Canada 2006 Elk NA assemble/dra genomes NCBI
Mb0565 w/o CC Canada 2011 Cattle NA assemble/dra genomes NCBI
BMR25 w/o CC Canada 1985 Bison NA assemble/dra genomes NCBI
Mb3601 Eu3 France 2014 Cattle 29 assemble/dra genomes NCBI
Mb0476 Eu2 Canada 2002 Cattle NA assemble/dra genomes NCBI
MbSP38 Eu2 Brazil 2010 Cattle 44 assemble/dra genomes NCBI
Mb1595 w/o CC Korea 2012 Cattle 45 assemble/dra genomes NCBI
Mb0030 w/o CC China NA NA 46 assemble/dra genomes NCBI
Mb0001 Eu2 Brazil 2015 Tapirus terrestris NA assemble/dra genomes NCBI
Mb0003 w/o CC India 1986 Cattle NA assemble/dra genomes NCBI
Mb31150 Af2 Uganda NA Chimpanzee 30,47 assemble/dra genomes NCBI
Figure1. Bioinformatics workow followed in this study.
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e quality of de novo assemblies was assessed by QUAST pipeline (http:// quast. sourc eforge. net/ quast. html),
which promotes the remapping of contigs with M. bovis AF2122/97 reference genome (NCBI accession number
LT708304.1) (quality parameters presented in Supplementary Table1).
Genome map to reference. e FASTQ les from the newly sequenced M. bovis obtained from Illumina
sequencing were aligned with M. bovis AF2122/97 reference genome (LT708304.1) with the help of vSNP pipe-
line (https:// github. com/ USDA- VS/ vSNP). e standard ltering parameters or variant quality score recalibra-
tion were applied according to Genome Analysis Toolkit (GATK)’s Best Practices recommendations53–55. Results
were ltered using a minimum SAMtools quality score of 150 and AC = 2. Reads were also examined using
Kraken (http:// ccb. jhu. edu/ sow are/ kraken/) to exclude contamination. e vSNP pipeline used for the map
to sequence strategy in our work examines a series of dening SNPs and targets also to exclude mixed infection
scenarios. Genome coverage by reads was superior to 99% (Supplementary Table1).
To avoid mapping errors and false SNPs, a variant was ltered out if: (1) it was supported by less than 20 reads,
(2) it was found in a frequency of less than 0.9, (3) it was registered in at least one strain but also with a gap in
at least another strain. SNPs and positions with mapping issues or alignment problems were visually validated
with Integrated Genomics Viewer (IGV) version 2.4.19 (http:// sow are. b road insti tute. org/ sow are/ igv/)56. Since
Proline-Glutamate (PE) and Proline-Proline Glutamate (PPE) genes are highly repetitive and part of multi-
gene families, they are prone to misreading by Illumina sequencing and mis-mapping and so are preferentially
removed from the bioinformatics workow of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex members when a strategy of
map to sequence is used to conrm SNPs. We thus ltered PE/PPE genes out from the analysis, as well as indels.
All SNPs were grouped into functional categories according with Bovilist (http:// genol ist. paste ur. fr/ BoviL ist/).
e SnpE pipeline (https:// pcing ola. github. io/ SnpE/) was employed to infer SNP consequences (synonymous
or non-synonymous alterations). A new database for M. bovis AF2122/97 genome (LT708304.1) was created.
Global core genome multi-alignment. e core genome multi-alignment was performed with Parsnp v1.2, cur-
rently available at https:// github. com/ marbl/ parsnp57, using the 69 complete genomes/dra assemblies (with
option -c) and M. bovis AF2122/97 (LT708304.1) as reference. Four core multi-alignment were performed:
including only members of Eu2 clonal complex (n = 37), including all members of European clonal complexes
(n = 44), including a junction of European and African clonal complexes (n = 51), and including all M. bovis from
this study (n = 70).
e core alignments generated by Parsnp were used to infer maximum-likelihood (ML) phylogenetic trees
using RAxML, via CIPRES Science Gateway v3.3 (http:// www. phylo. org/)58, with 1000 bootstrap replications.
Estimation of recombination events. e presence of recombination events was examined using three dier-
ent algorithms and bioinformatics tools in parallel: SplitsTree4 soware, Gubbins (Genealogies Unbiased By
recomBinations In Nucleotide Sequences) pipeline and RDP4 (Recombination Detection Program, version beta
4.101) soware.
e split decomposition method implemented in SplitsTree4 v4.15.1 (http:// www. split stree. org/)59 was imple-
mented to compute unrooted phylogenetic networks, which were validated statistically using the Phi test, with
a signicance threshold of p = 0.05. e core multi-alignments from Parsnp analysis were used as input and the
split decomposition as network criteria was implemented.
Gubbins pipeline v2.3.1 (https:// github. com/ sanger- patho gens/ gubbi ns60 was run using default parameters,
as another way to assess the impact of recombination on M. bovis. e algorithm implemented in the pipeline
reconstructs the clonal genealogy relating the complete genomes/dra assemblies of our dataset and the reference
genome (M. bovis AF2122/97, LT708304.1) to each other; and scans the positions of SNPs across each branch
of the tree in order to detect clusters of SNPs that would indicate recombination events. e null hypothesis for
branch assumes the absence of any recombination events, therefore implying that the SNPs occurring on the
branch should be evenly distributed. e core multi-alignments from Parsnp and the best scoring ML tree from
RAxML were used as input les.
Finally, to conrm the recombination events suggested by the Gubbins pipeline, six algorithms (RDP61,
GENECONV62, Bootscan63, Maxchi64, Chimaera65, and SiScan66) implemented in RDP467 were applied to the
core multi-alignments from Parsnp under default settings. We established that at least three of the algorithms
implemented in RDP4 had to concordantly evidence a signicant signal to validate each recombination event.
Considering that both Gubbins and RDP soware seek recombination signals by inspecting the core multi-
alignment in windows of 500bp maximum, and to conrm that the inclusion of PE/PPE genes in the de novo
assembly process did not interfere with the recombination signals found, the neighbourhood of genes in which
recombination events were identied were further inspected through a synteny analysis. Synteny maps, using
complete genomes, were constructed with MAUVE—multi-genome alignment (http:// darli nglab. org/ mauve/
mauve. html) to exclude local genome translocations or inversions. Furthermore, a synteny analysis with ami-
noacidic sequences was performed via SyntTax webserver (https:// archa ea. i2bc. paris- saclay. fr/ SyntT ax/) using
complete genomes.
Gene diversity analyses. e genome dataset obtained from a multi-host TB system in Portugal was subjected
to deeper analyses with the objective to examine the polymorphisms in the genes referred in the literature as
having been acquired through HGT by the MTBC ancestor37,38 and in the genes encoding 3R (DNA repair,
replication and recombination) system components39. Gene sequences of the 42M. bovis, together with gene
sequence from the reference genome (M. bovis AF2122/97, NC_002945.4), were aligned using ClustalX v2.1
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(http:// www. clust al. org/ clust al2/) and used as an input for the calculation of gene diversity, nucleotide diversity
(π) and Tajima’s D neutrality test parameters via DnaSP v6.12.03 (http:// www. ub. edu/ dnasp/).
Results and discussion
Global phylogenetic analysis. A Maximum Likelihood (ML) phylogenetic tree based on the 69M. bovis
isolates and reference genome was obtained (Fig.2A). is strategy allows the generation of a more robust tree,
when comparing with single gene based trees or multi-locus based trees, that do not capture the variability
across the entire genome and consequently present low inter-specic discriminatory power68,69. e resulting
topology of the ML tree generally agrees with clonal complex classication, with genomes of Eu2 clustering in
one tree branch and genomes of Af1 also clustering together (Fig.2A). Results are also in agreement with the
known M. bovis evolutionary relationships that present a large division between Eu1 members and a group com-
posed by all the other clonal complexes and genomes without assigned clonal complex30. Small inconsistencies
between clonal complex and the relationships observed at the phylogenetic tree can be explained by the fact that
clonal complexes are described based on specic genomic regions, while the phylogenetic tree is based on core
genome multi-alignment representing the whole genomes.
Evidences of recombination in Mycobacterium bovis. Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex is
described to have clonally evolved, and most evidences accumulated over the years support the idea that ongo-
ing HGT and recombination events do not occur at detectable levels in the MTBC15,17,18.
Previous works have suggested that there might be limited recombination among MTBC strains20,21, while
others were not successful to identify measurable recombination events70,71. To revisit this issue with focus on
M. bovis, and unlike previous works that only accounted for M. tuberculosis70,71; or that accountedMTBC as a
whole, with few M. bovis representatives20; or that only considered a restrict M. bovis dataset21, in this work a
total of 70 strains, with representatives from all clonal complexes, was used to screen for recombination. e
dataset was scaled in four cumulative levels: (1) Eu2 members, (2) all European clonal complexes members (i.e.
European), (3) bothEuropean and African clonal complexes (Eu + Af) and (4) the entire dataset (encompassing
the genomes that are not included in any of the clonal complexes already described).
To investigate this postulate further, a split decomposition network was performed to assess for the absence
of recombination events between genomes, since this method enables the visualization of ancestral relationships
between individuals and displays conicting phylogenetic signals. e presence of cycles in the network (i.e.
regions that do not converge into a single tree), was conrmed in all four datasets under analysis, however none
was supported statistically by the Phi test (Eu2, p = 0.0956; European, p = 0.1637; Eu + Af p = 0.2774; entire dataset
p = 0.2451), providing poor evidence for the presence of recombination events (Fig.3A-D).
Following this analysis, and considering the observation of cycles in all networks, the reconstruction algo-
rithm implemented in Gubbins pipeline was applied in order to reconstruct the clonal genealogy and to perform
a complementary estimation of the impact of recombination in M. bovis genomes. A cumulative number of
recombination events was inferred with the majority occurring in terminal branches (i.e. occurring in a single
genome) (Table2). e metrics showed consistency across the datasets and revealed that recombination events
occurred two hundred to three hundred times less frequently than mutations, once the rho/theta parameter
Figure2. Maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree (GTR) built based on core-genome alignment of M. bovis
genomes before (A) and aer (B) the removal of recombination sites. Branch colors represent M. bovis clonal
complexes: purple for European 1, red for European 2, blue for European 3, orange for African 1 and green for
African 2. e tree is rooted and drawn to scale with branch lengths measured as the number of substitutions
per site.
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that represents the relative rates of recombination and point mutation on a branch presented an average value
between 0.0037 and 0.0056 (Table3). Recently, a published work with 38 M. bovis strains evidenced a higher rho/
theta value (rho/theta = 0.1) than the one obtained for this dataset21, however the work by Patané and co-workers
used reference-based assemblies to infer recombination parameters, a procedure detail that was already associ-
ated with enrichment of putative recombination events at terminal branches due to the assembly procedure70.
Following, the r/m parameter, which represents the ratio of diversity introduced by recombination and
mutation, revealed an average value between 0.025 and 0.037, pointing that recombination has a lower overall
Figure3. Visualization of conicting phylogenetic signals at unrooted phylogenetic trees by the split
decomposition method in European 2 genomes (n = 37) (A), in European genomes (n = 44) (B), in a
combination of European and African genomes (n = 51) (C) and in the entire dataset (n = 70) (D).
Table 2. Number of recombination events inferred by the Gubbins pipeline and RDP4.
Dataset No. Gubbins events (% in terminal branches) No. RDP4 events (% in terminal branches)
European 2 (n = 37) 4 (50%) 1 (0%)
European (n = 44) 5 (60%) 2 (0%)
European and African (n = 51) 6 (66.7%) 2 (0%)
Entire dataset (n = 70) 8 (75%) 3 (33.3%)
Table 3. Recombination metrics obtained through the Gubbins pipeline analysis.
Dataset r/m Rho/theta
European 2 (n = 37) 0.025 0.0037
European (n = 44) 0.034 0.0046
European and African (n = 51) 0.037 0.0056
Entire dataset (n = 70) 0.037 0.0044
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eect in M. bovis genetic diversity when comparing with mutation (Table3). To make a broad comparison, the
r/m parameter was estimated using a similar methodology for an MTBC dataset composed by 23 genomes,
revealing a mean value of 0.48620, while for the 38M. bovis dataset of Patané and co-workers21 it evidenced a
mean value of 0.98. In the rst study there were only two M. bovis (M. bovis BCG and reference strain) within
the 23 genomes included in the work, so the obtained value might be biased by the overrepresentation of M.
tuberculosis genomes. In the second report, the M. bovis population under analysis was mainly recovered from
American countries and livestock hosts. In contrast, in our dataset, a higher number of geographic locations
and host species is represented, and genomes grouped into dierent clonal complexes with distinct population
genetic signatures were also used, enabling a deeper and wider population knowledge. e dierential r/m
average values obtained with our dataset are consistent with the notion that the extent of recombination vary
widely among lineages assigned to the same taxonomical species, so these results suggest that M. bovis clonal
complexes might exhibit a dierential impact of recombination, as also suggested by Didelot & Maiden72. Nev-
ertheless, enlarging signicantly this dataset with the inclusion of a higher number of M. bovis genomes would
allow further clarication of this point. Both r/m and rho/theta parameters present variability among the tree
branches, a result that is in agreement with reports concerning other bacterial species72,73.
Finally, to conrm the recombination events identied by Gubbins pipeline, the dierent core multi-align-
ments were also independently tested in RDP4 soware with six dierent algorithms. Globally, less than half of
the events identied by Gubbins were conrmed by RDP4 (Tables4, 5). Considering the entire dataset, three
recombination events were conrmed, two involving internal nodes and another one involving a single genome
in a terminal branch and for which a clonal complex could not be assigned (Tables4, 5). e identication of
events in terminal branches might be a sign that recombination is still ongoing in contemporary M. bovis strains
or the result of misalignment70. In this putative recombination region, circa 20% of positions have an undened
nucleotide (N), which can therefore inuence the recombination signal (Supplementary Fig.2). Moreover, this
region aects the rrs gene, encoding the 16S ribosomal RNA that is expected to be highly conserved, so this puta-
tive recombination signal could be the result of a sequencing error or wrong alignment. Whole genome alignment
between Mb0003 and M. bovis AF2122/97 was thus then performed and the presence of undened nucleotides
and of SNPs was conrmed, so the likely issues related to wrong alignment did not arrive as a consequence of
the bioinformatics procedure implemented in this work.
No gaps or undened nucleotides were identied in the recombination regions of internal nodes (Figs.4, 5).
With respect to these events, one encompasses exclusively Eu2 genomes, aecting the pks12 gene that encodes
a probable polyketide synthase; while the other one is registered across Eu1 genomes and aects narX gene
Table 4. Detailed information concerning the recombination events identied by Gubbins and RDP4 in the
entire dataset. Genome positions according with M. bovis AF2122/97.
Recombination e vent Identication Core-alignment
positions Genome positions(a) Gene name Mb gene name Classication of gene
function M. bovis isolate ID
#1 Gubbins 945,923–945,950 1,220,297–1,220,324 PE PGRS22 Mb1121 PE-PGRS family protein Mb2026
#2 Gubbins; RDP4 1,176,674–1,177,221 1,475,305–1,475,975 rrs Mb5019 Ribosomal RNA 16S Mb0003
#3 Gubbins; RDP4 1,532,736–1,532,787 1,953,495–1,953,548 narX Mb1765c Probable nitrate reduc-
tase NarX Mb1792361
Mb7240415
#4 Gubbins 1,532,751–1,532,781 1,953,840–1,953,870 narX Mb1765c Probable nitrate reduc-
tase NarX Mb1792361
#5 Gubbins; RDP4 1,794,609–1,794,714 2,283,200–2,283,315 pks12 Mb2074c Probable polyketide
synthase pks12
Mb0891 Mb1711
Mb1789 Mb1870
Mb1758 Mb2043
Mb1960
#6 Gubbins 1,794,627–1,794,780 2,283,713–2,285,136 pks12 Mb2074c Probable polyketide
synthase pks12 Mb0003
#7 Gubbins 2,242,002–2,242,098 2,839,474–2,839,570 tatA Mb2121
Probable Sec-independ-
ent protein translocase
membrane-bound
protein tatA
Mb0565
#8 Gubbins 3,244,551–3,244,556 4,003,420–4,003,425 espa Mb3646c Conserved hypothetical
alanine and glycine rich
protein Mb2043
Table 5. Statistical values associated with dierent algorithms implemented in RDP4 for the conrmed
recombination events.
Recombination
event Alignment positions RDP (p-value) GENECONV
(p-value) Bootscan
(p-value) MaxChi
(p-value) Chimaera (p-value)
#2 1,176,674–1,177,221 7.524 × 10−22 1.871 × 10−20 1.004 × 10−15 9.926 × 10−05 9.753 × 10−05
#3 1,532,736–1,532,787 3.771 × 10−09 5.216 × 10−08 5.634 × 10−03 – –
#5 1,794,609–1,794,714 1.338 × 10−11 2.324 × 10−10 6.200 × 10−12 – –
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encoding a probable nitrate reductase (Table4). Overall, the recombination analysis suggested the presence of
a limited number of recombination segments with statistical support, and the inferred metrics indicate a lower
eect of recombination on M. bovis genealogy. e recombination signal was expected to be low, however it is
important to distinguish true evolutionary signals from background noise, which is a challenging task. In order to
decrease the noise signal proposed to be introduced by reference-based assemblies and misalignment issues70,71,
Figure4. Detailed visualization of alignment in the recombination region of M. bovis dataset aecting the
narX gene encoding a probable nitrate reductase. No gaps or undened nucleotides were identied in the
recombination region of internal nodes. is specic event was registered across Eu1 genomes. e quality
of sequencing of narX gene was evaluated by read mapping against M. bovis AF2122/97. e SNP positions
suggested in the recombination region were conrmed by applying the criteria referred to in the methods
section (at least 20 reads and 0.9 frequency of alteration). e polymorphisms at narX gene were fully conrmed
in genomes Mb1792361 and Mb7240415 (2.3%).
Figure5. Detailed visualization of alignment in the recombination region of M. bovis dataset aecting the
pks12 gene. No gaps or undened nucleotides were identied in the recombination region of internal nodes.
With respect to this event aecting the pks12 gene that encodes a probable polyketide synthase, it encompasses
exclusively Eu2 genomes. e quality of sequencing of pks12 was evaluated by read mapping against M. bovis
AF2122/97. e SNP positions suggested in the recombination region were conrmed by applying the criteria
referred to in the methods section (at least 20 reads and 0.9 frequency of alteration). e polymorphisms were
fully conrmed for genomes Mb0891, Mb1711, Mb1789, Mb1870, Mb1758, Mb2043, Mb1960.
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with the exception of complete genomes, all the remaining ones were de novo assembled and the quality of
assemblies was checked and secured via QUAST pipeline analysis (Supplementary Table1). Moreover, a series of
complementary analyses was performed to provide robustness and accurateness to the overall investigation. us,
the quality of sequencing of narX and pks12 genes was evaluated by read mapping against M. bovis AF2122/97.
e SNP positions suggested in the recombination region were conrmed by applying the criteria referred in
the methods section (at least 20 reads and 0.9 frequency of alteration). e polymorphisms at narX gene were
fully conrmed in two genomes (Mb1792361 and Mb7240415; 2.3%), as well as in the case of pks12 gene for
genomes Mb0891, Mb1711, Mb1789, Mb1870, Mb1758, Mb2043, Mb1960. However, for genome Mb2043, six
out of eight positions did not meet the read depth criteria because the SNPs were supported by a maximum of 17
reads that was below the established cut-o of 20. Recombination at this genome spot could thus be conrmed
for six genomes (8.6%) (Figs.4, 5).
PE and PPE genes have repetitive regions prone to misreading by Illumina sequencing and mis-mapping
and so are commonly removed from the bioinformatics workow of Mycobacterium tuberculosis members only
when a strategy of map to sequence is used. e inference of recombination events applied in this work was based
on de novo assemblies for which PE/PPE were not ltered out. We believe that the strategy applied, with the
implementation of three dierent, complementary approaches and algorithms by SplitsTree, Gubbins pipeline
and RDP4 soware, is robust to deal and lter recombination regions arising from false signals. Nevertheless, to
exclude the interference of PE/PPE genes on the identication of SNP clusters by Gubbins and RDP4 soware,
and consequently on the identication of the recombination regions proposed to aect narX and pks12 genes,
the neighbourhood of these genes was inspected (Supplementary Fig.3–5). In M. bovis AF2122/97, the narX
gene is delimited by narK2 and Mb1764c, while pks12 is surrounded by Mb2075c e Mb2073c (Supplementary
Fig.3–5). Synteny maps with MAUVE using complete genomes yielded plots providing information about gene
order conservation and rearrangements, showing four colinear blocks, without signs of genome translocations
or inversions. Furthermore, a complementary analysis with aminoacidic sequences evidenced synteny in all
complete genomes and no PE/PPE were identied in the neighbourhood regions of narX or pks12. For narX, one
genome (Mb0030) had a lower synteny score, since narX gene is identied in two segments (segment 1891 and
1890). For pks12, Mb0030 and Mb003 present lower synteny scores due to a similar situation, whereas pks12 is
identied in two and three segments, respectively, representing dierent domains of the protein (Supplementary
Fig.3–5). Considering this information and that both Gubbins and RDP4 soware perform an analysis inspect-
ing the core multi-alignment in windows with a maximum of 500bp, we conrmed that the PE/PPE genes did
not interfere with the recombination signals aecting narX and pks12.
Although the recombination signals detected in this dataset may be considered residual, recombination in
M. bovis cannot indeed be excluded and should thus continue to be the subject of further analyses for which
sequencing of whole genomes from dierent epidemiological scenarios is crucial.
Comparing the obtained ML phylogenetic trees before and aer the recombination correction (Fig.2A,B) did
not lead to signicant changes in the inferred phylogenetic relationships, with M. bovis strains being gathered
within the same groups.
An evolutionary scenario for M. bovis from a multi‑host TB system in Portugal. A SNP align-
ment containing 1816 polymorphic positions was obtained aer mapping reads of 42 newly sequenced M.
bovis against the reference genome of M. bovis AF2122/97. e majority of SNPs (87.1%) was located in cod-
ing regions and the aected genes were characterized according to functional categories displayed in Bovilist
(Fig.6A,B). Aer accounting for the total number of genes per functional category, the genes encompassed in
“Lipid metabolism” category presented the higher number of SNPs, followed by “Cell wall and cell process” and
“Intermediary metabolism and respiration”, revealing their underlying importance in M. bovis evolution.
Globally, the average dN/dS ratio is superior to 1.5, which suggests a global evolutionary pressure to escape
from the ancestral state and representing positive (diversifying or directional) and/or relaxed purifying selection
scenarios. In the categories “Virulence, detoxication, adaptation”, “Insertion seqs and phages” and “Regulatory
proteins”, over two-thirds of SNPs were non-synonymous (Fig.6B).
In all categories, there were genes with more than one SNP, leading to an average rate of mutation (i.e. the
mean value of SNPs per gene) greater than one (Fig.6A). e higher mutation values were harboured by pks12
(Mb2074c) with 15 SNPs and fas (Mb2553c) with 8 SNPs. Both genes are involved in fatty acid metabolism. e
pks genes encode polyketide synthases (PKS) which are multifunctional enzymes involved in the biosynthesis of
mycobacterial cell wall lipids74,75. is gene encodes a multifunctional polypeptide that is involved in the synthesis
of mycoketides74,76. e fas gene is involved in the synthesis of mycolic acids. Both genes play an import role in
the biosynthesis of the cell wall that is at the interface with the host.
SNP‑detailed analysis of HGT and 3R genes. To further study the evolutionary processes within
M. bovis, two specic groups of genes were analysed. Previous published works using sequence composition
and phylogenetic methods identied genes that were acquired through HGT by the MTBC ancestor before
diversication37,38. ose genes are listed in Supplementary Table2. e SNP distribution was analysed in a total
of 77 genes presumably involved in HGT, and 26 polymorphic sites were identied, leading, in the majority of
cases (78%), to a non-synonymous (NS) change (Supplementary Table2). Previous work conducted with MTBC
genomes evidenced that putative HGT regions present a higher ratio of NS SNPs when comparing with the rest
of the genome20. If one considers that these recombination tracts were acquired by the MTBC ancestor and, thus,
they over-represent ancient polymorphisms, then it would be expected a higher fraction of synonymous altera-
tions, since NS substitutions are expected to be eliminated by negative selection, as the changes in amino acid
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might modify protein function. So, our results suggest that functional consequences may arise from substitu-
tions in HGT-like genes, which remits to their importance on valuable adaptive genetic diversity.
In parallel with this analysis, the genes encoding 3R (DNA repair, replication and recombination) system
components were thoroughly examined, following the previous published list by dos Vultos and collaborators
(2008)39. e exchanges of identical DNA fragments cannot be directly observed, although it might be a frequent
process when involving closely related bacteria, such as in the case of this dataset; plus, this process might be
crucial as a DNA repair method72 and thus play a role in homologous recombination. A total of 26 polymorphic
positions distributed by 54 genes were identied (Supplementary Table3). In this group of genes, NS changes
account for about 65% of the consequences, which is in agreement with a previous report for M. tuberculosis
strains39.
Gene and nucleotide diversity (π) were evaluated for the genes presenting polymorphisms. Gene diversity
is a measure of the uniqueness of a particular gene sequence in a population. Average values of 0.256 and 0.226
were obtained for HGT and 3R group genes, respectively. When the value of gene diversity index is zero, all the
sequences under analysis are equal. erefore, the values obtained in this work reveal that there is limited genetic
diversity within the selected panel of genes. e nucleotide diversity (π) compares the similarity per site between
two nucleotide sequences. When π is superior to 0.003 it can be considered that the group of sequences under
analysis is highly diverse. In our analysis, both gene groups reveal an average value inferior to 0.003, with HGT
registering 0.00034 and the 3R circa. 0.00021. No gene had a π value higher than 0.003, thus also conrming
limited nucleotide diversity within the selected gene panels.
e Tajima’s D test of neutrality was also evaluated, and in both groups there were genes with positive and
negative values, evidenced by an average value inferior to zero. e selection against deleterious mutations, past
selective sweeps and population expansion aer a recent bottleneck are pointed as possible causes to decrease
the result from Tajima’s D test.
Balance of forces in M. bovis evolution. Natural selection is a mechanism of evolution and has been
associated with MTBC evolution9. Selective sweeps (i.e. positive selection that leads to the xation of a new
Figure6. Stratied analysis for the M. bovis dataset from Portugal (n = 42). Total number of SNPs and aected
genes registered per functional category (A). Total number of synonymous and non-synonymous alterations
registered by functional category (B).
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benecial mutation) and background selection (i.e. selection against a deleterious mutation that leads to the
elimination of any mutation linked to the target of selection) are both linked to the action of natural selection.
In this work, several evidences support the importance of natural selection: (1) SNP distribution is not ran-
dom, with genes included in the “lipid metabolism”, “cell wall and cell processes” and “intermediary metabolism
and respiration” categories presenting a higher SNP rate; (2) regions proposed to be transferred from MTBC
ancestor also accumulate an excess of SNPs; and (3) the HGT and 3R groups evidenced a global average value
inferior to zero in the neutrality tests, indicating a past selective sweep or expansion aer bottleneck. Further-
more, the high proportion of low-frequency genetic variants, particularly singletons, is one of the features associ-
ated with MTBC population genetics, and proposed to reect the inuence of background selection10,77, an eect
that is also conrmed in this work, as 372 (20.5%) of the 1816 considered SNPs are strain-specic.
e global elevated value of dN/dS ratio is commonly associated with a positive selection force, likely due
to diversifying selection and local selective sweep. However, a reduction in eective population size might
have contributed, partially, to this unusual rate of NS per synonymous mutations, once mutations that might
have been deleterious in a population with a large eective population size can dri to a high frequency in a
small population and, in that way, reecting reduction in the ecacy of purifying selection as a consequence of
increased genetic dri9,10.
e aected genes could confer important adaptive advantages through NS substitutions, however functional
studies would be necessary to understand the consequences arising from those SNPs and to infer what would be
the benets for mycobacteria. Recent work performed by Yang and collaborators78 with M. tuberculosis strains
suggested that this evolutionary pressure could allow accessory genes (i.e. genes that are not present in all strains
or strain-specic genes) to gradually dominate and eventually become core genes (i.e. present in all strains)79.
is could provide important adaptive and resistance capacities, if considering that accessory genes might be
involved in virulence, immune system evasion or antibiotic resistance.
erefore, a deeper understanding of the role of these evolutionary forces is required to determine which
genes have contributed signicantly to M. bovis evolution in its trajectory of interaction with dierent hosts in
specic disease systems.
Final conclusions and future work
e study of genetic relatedness and structure of obligatory pathogen populations might provide important
insights into their intraspecic genomic diversity and evolution arising upon the interaction with the host. In
recent years, many technologicaladvances have shed light onto the biology of M. bovis, however the use of high-
throughput technologies such as WGS to understand evolutionary steps is still infrequent, with most works in
the TB eld being focused on M. tuberculosis or in the molecular epidemiology of M. bovis.
In the current work, a diverse M. bovis dataset, with representatives of all described clonal complexes, was
used to assess how dierent evolutionary forces impact and shape the genetic diversity of a population. Alto-
gether, we ended up with a dataset composed of 70M. bovis strains, representing the most diverse dataset
available to infer recombination, when comparing with other publicly available works. Furthermore, we used
isolates obtained from multiple hosts, including humans. Although we may speculate that the inclusion of more
genomes might have an impact on the identication of recombination events and recombination metrics, this
pilot work is already signicant in the context of present knowledge. More complete analyses may be conducted
in the future with larger M. bovis datasets to conrm our ndings.
e impact of recombination in our dataset was assessed through three complementary strategies. Moreo-
ver, eorts to avoid unreliable alignments and to guarantee data quality were made, so that the assessment of
recombination signals would be as accurate as possible. Although residual, two approaches support a number of
recombination events in the examined dataset, which argue against the paradigm that MTBC is strictly clonal.
Despite the limited eects on M. bovis diversity when comparing with mutation, recombination events need to
be considered in future evolutionary research works in order to further understand their true impact on biologi-
cal processes, once they may be an important force generating diversication that may translate into virulence,
immune evasion and/or antibiotic resistance phenotypes.
Indeed, previous WGS works support recombination in M. canettii7, showing that strains are highly recombi-
nogenic and evolutionary early-branching, with larger genome sizes, 25-fold more SNPs relative to MTBC mem-
bers. ose works also provide experimental evidence of how pks5-recombination-mediated bacterial surface
remodelling in M. canettii increased virulence, driving evolution from smooth to rough morphology and from
generalist mycobacteria (M. canetti) towards professional pathogens of mammalian hosts (MTBC)80. Moreover,
a recent work performed by Chiner-Oms and collaborators (2019) found evidences of recombination between
theMTBC ancestor and M. canetti ancestor (before diverging to M. canettii), thus proposing the existence of
recombination potential before the diversication of MTBC into dierent ecotypes71. So, eorts to expand
this topic across all MTBC ecotypes should continue in the future. In this work, we excluded recombination
in genomes from the African clonal complexes, nevertheless, a broader sample dataset would be necessary to
accurately address the dierences amongst clonal complexes members.
Following, the comparative genomic analyses performed in a smaller group of genomes representative of
the M. bovis population from an endemic TB scenario in Portugal suggested that genes included in the “lipid
metabolism”, “cell wall and cell processes” and “intermediary metabolism and respiration” categories have a
superior importance in M. bovis evolution and a global positive selection force was suggested to be acting upon
this population, as informed by the elevated dN/dS ratio9,10.
Finally, this work reinforces the value of WGS as a high-resolution tool for the analysis of M. bovis genomic
diversity and provides insights into the role of recombination and positive selection as evolutionary driving forces
in a pathogen aecting a large range of host species, with economical and biodiversity impacts across the world.
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Data availability
e newly sequencing data included in this work is deposited under the following Biosample accession numbers:
SAMN17004141-SAMN17004143, SAMN17004145- SAMN17004174, SAMN17004176- SAMN17004184 and
under the Bioproject accession number PRJNA682618 at a public domain server in National Centre for Biotech-
nology Information (NCBI) SRA database.
Received: 20 May 2021; Accepted: 27 August 2021
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Acknowledgements
is work was funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, IP (FCT) / MCTES through national funds
(PIDDAC) and co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) of the European Union,
through the Lisbon Regional Operational Program and the Competitiveness and Internationalization Operational
Program for Portugal 2020 or other programs that may succeed (project ‘Colossus: Control Of tubercuLOsiS at
the wildlife/livestock interface uSing innovative natUre-based Solutions’, ref. PTDC/CVT-CVT/29783/2017, LIS-
BOA-01-0145-FEDER-029783, POCI-01-0145-FEDER-029783). Strategic funding to cE3c and BioISI Research
Units (UIDB/00329/2020 and UIDB/04046/2020) from FCT is acknowledged. ACR was supported by FCT
through a doctoral grant (PD/BD/128031/2016).
Author contributions
M.V.C. conceived this work and secured resources and funding. A.C.R. performed the bioinformatic analyses
under the guidance of M.V.C. and explored the data under MVC supervision. A.C.R. wrote the rst dra of the
manuscript and M.V.C. critically revised all versions. Both authors approved the nal version.
Competing interests
e authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Supplementary Information e online version contains supplementary material available at https:// doi. org/
10. 1038/ s41598- 021- 98226-y.
Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to M.V.C.
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