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Contribution of exogenous genetic elements to the group a streptococcus metagenome.
Beres SB, Musser JM. PLoS ONE 2007 2(8):e800
Grading: Must Read
Tags: New Finding, Tech Advance
F1000 Factor: 6.0

Faculty Member: Niyaz Ahmed
Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics, India
GASTROENTEROLOGY & HEPATOLOGY

The group A streptococcus (GAS) metagenome, encompassing eight previously sequenced GAS genomes and four genomes sequenced herein, makes GAS organisms, so far, the best dissected ones and explored at genomic level. I was thrilled to notice that the voluminous genome data generated as a part of this study was managed, handled, annotated, holistically processed and interpreted by just a two-member team. In general, we see enormously lengthy author bylines in this article type. This reminds us, in part, of the terrific speed and automation of genome analysis pipelines that the authors seemingly enjoyed; however, a lot of money needs to be pumped in! So, in a way, it is quite an expensive study, but one which will ultimately benefit the cause of world’s poor who are crippled by non-availability of the medical interventions against GAS. So, a generous investment indeed! Having said that, I can clearly foresee, based on these findings, a tremendous potential for the ensuing patho-biology of the GAS - especially addressing the putative functions encoded by the flexible genome component. The second major benefit will be the availability of conventions based on metagenomic repertoires of the GAS mobile elements to tag and track field-level diversity of the circulating strains; this will be of paramount significance in vaccine development and testing.

Competing interests: No potential interests relevant to this article were reported.
Evaluated 5 Sep 2007


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Faculty of 1000 Medicine: evaluations for Beres SB & Musser JM PLoS ONE 2007 2 (8) :e800 http://www.f1000medicine....
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