Mycoplasma meleagridis is a bacterium belonging to the Mollicutes class. It is considered to be a main cause of diseases in the avian sector leading to huge economic losses. Genome size of M. meleagridis reference strain is estimated to be around#634,132-bp (Yacoub et al.,2015), thus representing the smallest pathogenic avian mycoplasmas genome. It was usually thought that M. meleagridis cause infection only in turkey nevertheless, recent evidence from our studies supports its host-switching potential from turkey to chicken (Béjaoui et al., 2011).Recently, genomic sequencing of a Tunisian clinical Mycoplasma meleagridis strain MM26B8 revealed a larger genome size than that of the reference strain (Yacoub et al.,2016). The additional sequence seems to share a high similarity with that of a probiotic strain belonging to the Lactobacillus genus . This preliminary observation lead us to sequence the other 8 strains isolated from poultry using illumina Iseq100 sequencing technology and continue further alignment and investigation for the possible mobile genetic elements that may be involved in the host switching.
Recent advances in oxford nonopore sequencing will help us to consolidate our hypothesis using valuable tools that will enable us to investigate potential virulence factors and antibiotic resistance genes,and also annotating large sequence of interest .
Given the scarcity of studies characterizing the genome of Mycoplasma meleagridis,this will be the first to provide a thorough understanding of Mycoplsama meleagridis pathogenic feature, and to discover the possible genomic feature behind its host switching.
