Phylogenomics and antigenic Variation in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Resumen del trabajo presentado a la VII Biennial Congress of Sociedad Española de Biología Evolutiva (SEBE), celebrada en Sevilla (España) del 5 al 7 de febrero de 2020.Tuberculosis is the deadliest disease due to a single pathogen according to the latest estimates of the World Health Organization. This is largely due to the host immune status, but also the success of the transmission-infection strategy carried out by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. M. tuberculosis is diverse, genetically and also phenotypically, including virulence related phenotypes. Genomic differences can distinguish at least eleven M. tuberculosis lineages that cause disease in different host and different human populations. We don’t know if like other pathogens, M. tuberculosis exploits antigenic variation to overcome the host immune system, or even to adapt to specific host or populations. Given the importance of understanding the host specificity and immune evasion strategies of M. tuberculosis, we aimed to provide a phylogenomic framework of M. tuberculosis in different hosts and study the genomic diversity of antigens. We analyzed both human and animal epitopes of T and B cells, in 12.557 genomic sequences of the different M. tuberculosis lineages, including animal associated ecotypes. Through bioinformatic analysis, it was determined presence/absence of epitopes and its genetic diversity in the context of the global phylogeny. We demonstrated differences among T and B cell epitopes, and epitope variability not described before. Our results reveal how antigens vary within M. tuberculosis, opening new paths in the development of control strategies to fight tuberculosis.Peer reviewe