Genetic affinities of <it>Helicobacter pylori </it>isolates from ethnic Arabs in Kuwait

• Main Authors: Albert M John, Al-Akbal Hanan M, Dhar Rita, De Ronita, Mukhopadhyay Asish K
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2010-07-01
• Series: Gut Pathogens
• Online Access: http://www.gutpathogens.com/content/2/1/6

<p>Abstract</p> <p><it>Helicobacter pylori </it>is one of the most genetically diverse of bacterial species, and since the 5'-end of <it>cagA </it>gene and the middle allele of <it>vacA </it>gene of <it>H. pylori </it>from different populations exhibit considerable polymorphisms, these sequence diversities were used to gain insights into the genetic affinities of this gastric pathogen from different populations. Because the genetic affinity of Arab strains from the Arabian Gulf is not known, we carried out genetic analysis based on sequence diversities of the <it>cagA </it>and the <it>vacA </it>genes of <it>H. pylori </it>from 9 ethnic Arabs in Kuwait. The analysis showed that the Kuwaiti isolates are closely related to the Indo-European group of strains, although some strains have a tendency to form a separate cluster close to the Indo- European group, but clearly distinct from East Asian strains. However, these results need to be confirmed by analyses of neutral markers (house-keeping genes in a multi-locus sequence typing [MLST]) platform. The profiling of virulence-associated genes may have resulted from ecologically distinct populations due to human migration and geographical separation over long periods of time.</p>