Comparative study between Helicobacter pylori and host human genetics in the Dominican Republic.
BACKGROUND
Helicobacter pylori, a bacterium that infects the human stomach, has high genetic diversity. Because its evolution is parallel to human, H. pylori is used as a tool to trace human migration. However, there are few studies about the relationship between phylogeography of H. pylori and its host human.


METHODS
We examined both H. pylori DNA and the host mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome DNA obtained from a total 119 patients in the Dominican Republic, where human demography consists of various ancestries. DNA extracted from cultured H. pylori were analyzed by multi locus sequence typing. Mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome DNA were evaluated by haplogroup analyses.


RESULTS
H. pylori strains were divided into 2 populations; 68 strains with African group (hpAfrica1) and 51 strains with European group (hpEurope). In Y-chromosomal haplogroup, European origin was dominant, whereas African origin was dominant both in H. pylori and in mtDNA haplogroup. These results supported the hypothesis that mother-to-child infection is predominant in H. pylori infection. The Amerindian type of mtDNA haplogroup was observed in 11.8% of the patients; however, Amerindian type (hspAmerind) of H. pylori was not observed. Although subpopulation type of most hpAfrica1 strains in Central America and South America were hybrid (hspWAfrica/hpEurope), most Dominican Republic hpAfrica1 strains were similar to those of African continent.


CONCLUSIONS
Genetic features of H. pylori, mtDNA, and Y haplogroups reflect the history of colonial migration and slave trade in the Dominican Republic. Discrepancy between H. pylori and the host human genotypes support the hypothesis that adaptability of hspAmerind H. pylori strains are weaker than hpEurope strains. H. pylori strains in the Dominican Republic seem to contain larger proportion of African ancestry compared to other American continent strains.
['Ono|Takaaki|T|', 'Cruz|Modesto|M|', 'Jiménez Abreu|José A|JA|', 'Nagashima|Hiroyuki|H|', 'Subsomwong|Phawinee|P|', 'Hosking|Celso|C|', 'Shiota|Seiji|S|', 'Suzuki|Rumiko|R|', 'Yamaoka|Yoshio|Y|0000-0002-1222-5819']
D000328:Adult D000368:Aged D041322:Chromosomes, Human, Y D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial D004293:Dominican Republic D005260:Female D005838:Genotype D016481:Helicobacter Infections D016480:Helicobacter pylori D000074705:Human Genetics D063426:Human Migration D006801:Humans D018445:Infectious Disease Transmission, Vertical D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing D058974:Phylogeography D055815:Young Adult
Helicobacter pylori Dominican Republic Genetic diversity Phylogeography Human Y-chromosome DNA Human mitochondrial DNA Population structure