Fig. 7.

Intra-specific variation in the gene encoding the ComEA transmembrane DNA receptor. a. Five variants were found to map to specific branches of the genetic relatedness dendrogram. Strains which contained a contig break in the ORF encoding ComEA are shaded in light blue and assigned to the likely variant category. b. Alignment of predicted ComEA peptide sequences showing full-length (Variant A) and truncated (Variants B to E) versions. Variants B, C and D contained frameshift mutations resulting in prematurely-encoded stop codons which resulted in an additional ORF being predicted in silico (Variant E). The C-terminal DNA-binding motif is highlighted in red and is not encoded by Variants C and D. Variant B contains a premature stop within the DNA-binding domain and still corresponds with genetically-distant strains. Variant D represents a frameshift mutation unique to the BAA-1163 strain. c. Nucleotide sequence alignment highlighting single nucleotide deletions causing frameshift mutations and truncation of the ComEA peptide sequence