<i>In silico</i> characteristics of rickettsial patatins (Pat1 and Pat2).

<p><b>A</b>) Schema depicting the major features of <i>R. typhi</i> Pat1 (RT0590, YP_067537) and Pat2 (RT0522, YP_067473) proteins. The conserved Glycine-rich motif (G), Serine hydrolase motif (S) and active site Aspartate (D) of patatins are depicted for both proteins, with a variable region (V) and conserved C-terminal tail (T) illustrated for Pat1. Neither protein was predicted to contain an N-terminal Sec-dependent secretion signal (see text). <b>B</b>) Comparative analysis of Pat1 and Pat2 proteins across 46 <i>Rickettsia</i> genomes. Phylogeny at left is based on whole genome analysis <a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003399#ppat.1003399-Driscoll1" target="_blank">[73]</a>, with rickettsial groups as follows: red, ancestral group; aquamarine, typhus group; blue, transitional group, brown, spotted fever group <a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003399#ppat.1003399-Gillespie3" target="_blank">[26]</a>, <a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003399#ppat.1003399-Gillespie7" target="_blank">[74]</a>. <i>R. helvetica</i>, previously categorized as spotted fever group rickettsiae, is shown as <i>incertae sedis</i>. Plasmids pRF (<i>R. felis</i>) and pMCE_1 (“<i>Candidatus R. amblyommii</i>”), which encode Pat1 homologs, are also listed (but not included in the phylogeny estimation). The sequences within the conserved G, S and D regions for both Pat1 and Pat2 are shown. For Pat1, the length of the V region is provided, followed by number of predicted repeats <a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003399#ppat.1003399-Biegert1" target="_blank">[66]</a>. The group designation (A or B) for each Pat1 sequence is provided based on phylogeny estimation (see <a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003399#ppat-1003399-g002" target="_blank"><b>Fig. 2A</b></a>). For Pat1, sequences highlighted gray (<i>R. bellii</i> str. RML369-C and <i>R. peacockii</i> str. Rustic) depict the proteins comprised of two ORFs split near the C-terminus (see <a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003399#ppat-1003399-g002" target="_blank"><b>Fig. 2B</b></a>). For Pat2, black bars depict pseudogenes, which comprise short annotated ORFs with strong homology to full length Pat2 proteins or smaller fragments identified using TBLASTN. Accession numbers for all sequences are provided in <b><a href="http://www.plospathogens.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.ppat.1003399#ppat.1003399.s004" target="_blank">Table S1</a></b>.