The Sanger Institute has been funded by the Wellcome Trust to sequence the genome of Helicobacter mustelae strain ATCC 43772 in collaboration with Dr. Paul O'Toole of the Department of Microbiology, University College Cork, Ireland

Helicobacter mustelae is a pathogen of ferrets, where it causes general pathology and ulceration in a similar manner to H. pylori in humans. It provides a genetically tractable animal model for ulceration and gastric cancer. Comparative genome analysis of H. pylori, the extragastric H. hepaticus, and H. mustelae, will provide new insights into genes involved in gastric and extragastric virulence in this genus.

The genome is now finished and consists of a circular chromosome of 1,578,097 with a G+C content of 42.46%.

The finished genome is available for searching on our Blast Server, or for download from our FTP site.

The full database of shotgun reads is also available in the same way. In total, there are 20,174 reads totalling 12.606 Mb and giving a theoretical coverage of 99.94% of the genome.

Statement on annotation

Annotation of the sequence is ongoing, and the full annotation will be released upon publication. Please note that, although the sequence is finished, and we believe it to be accurate, it is possible that errors and missassemblies may remain. The sequence should be considered as preliminary until final publication. We would ask users of the data to read our Data release policy and Guidelines on use of data in publications

Data Release Statement

This sequencing centre plans on publishing the completed and annotated sequences in a peer-reviewed journal as soon as possible. Permission of the principal investigator should be obtained before publishing analyses of the sequence/open reading frames/genes on a chromosome or genome scale.

Sequencing enquiries

Please address all sequencing enquiries to: parkhill@sanger.ac.uk