scholarly journals Genomic Comparison of Campylobacter spp. and Their Potential for Zoonotic Transmission between Birds, Primates, and Livestock

2016 ◽  
Vol 82 (24) ◽  
pp. 7165-7175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison M. Weis ◽  
Dylan B. Storey ◽  
Conor C. Taff ◽  
Andrea K. Townsend ◽  
Bihua C. Huang ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTCampylobacteris the leading cause of human gastroenteritis worldwide. Wild birds, including American crows, are abundant in urban, suburban, and agricultural settings and are likely zoonotic vectors ofCampylobacter. Their proximity to humans and livestock increases the potential spreading ofCampylobactervia crows between the environment, livestock, and humans. However, no studies have definitively demonstrated that crows are a vector for pathogenicCampylobacter. We used genomics to evaluate the zoonotic and pathogenic potential ofCampylobacterfrom crows to other animals with 184 isolates obtained from crows, chickens, cows, sheep, goats, humans, and nonhuman primates. Whole-genome analysis uncovered two distinct clades ofCampylobacter jejunigenotypes; the first contained genotypes found only in crows, while a second genotype contained “generalist” genomes that were isolated from multiple host species, including isolates implicated in human disease, primate gastroenteritis, and livestock abortion. Two major β-lactamase genes were observed frequently in these genomes (oxa-184, 55%, andoxa-61, 29%), whereoxa-184was associated only with crows andoxa-61was associated with generalists. Mutations ingyrA, indicative of fluoroquinolone resistance, were observed in 14% of the isolates. Tetracycline resistance (tetO) was present in 22% of the isolates, yet it occurred in 91% of the abortion isolates. Virulence genes were distributed throughout the genomes; however,cdtCalleles recapitulated the crow-only and generalist clades. A specificcdtCallele was associated with abortion in livestock and was concomitant withtetO. These findings indicate that crows harboring a generalistC. jejunigenotype may act as a vector for the zoonotic transmission ofCampylobacter.IMPORTANCEThis study examined the link between public health and the genomic variation ofCampylobacterin relation to disease in humans, primates, and livestock. Use of large-scale whole-genome sequencing enabled population-level assessment to find new genes that are linked to livestock disease. With 184Campylobactergenomes, we assessed virulence traits, antibiotic resistance susceptibility, and the potential for zoonotic transfer to observe that there is a “generalist” genotype that may move between host species.

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (10) ◽  
pp. 5777-5786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mónica García-Solache ◽  
Francois Lebreton ◽  
Robert E. McLaughlin ◽  
James D. Whiteaker ◽  
Michael S. Gilmore ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe transfer of DNA betweenEnterococcus faeciumstrains has been characterized both by the movement of well-defined genetic elements and by the large-scale transfer of genomic DNA fragments. In this work, we report on the whole-genome analysis of transconjugants resulting from mating events between the vancomycin-resistantE. faeciumC68 strain and the vancomycin-susceptible D344RRF strain to discern the mechanism by which the transferred regions enter the recipient chromosome. Vancomycin-resistant transconjugants from five independent matings were analyzed by whole-genome sequencing. In all cases but one, the penicillin binding protein 5 (pbp5) gene and the Tn5382vancomycin resistance transposon were transferred together and replaced the correspondingpbp5region of D344RRF. In one instance, Tn5382inserted independently downstream of the D344RRFpbp5gene. Single nucleotide variant (SNV) analysis suggested that entry of donor DNA into the recipient chromosome occurred by recombination across regions of homology between donor and recipient chromosomes, rather than through insertion sequence-mediated transposition. The transfer of genomic DNA was also associated with the transfer of C68 plasmid pLRM23 and another putative plasmid. Our data are consistent with the initiation of transfer by cointegration of a transferable plasmid with the donor chromosome, with subsequent circularization of the plasmid-chromosome cointegrant in the donor prior to transfer. Entry into the recipient chromosome most commonly occurred across regions of homology between donor and recipient chromosomes.


2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (12) ◽  
pp. 6079-6090 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Berit Olsen ◽  
Bjørn Spilsberg ◽  
Hanne K. Nilsen ◽  
Karin Lagesen ◽  
Snorre Gulla ◽  
...  

Results of previous multilocus sequence and whole-genome-based analyses have suggested that a homogeneous group of isolates belonging to the genus Tenacibaculum , represented by strain TNO020T and associated with skin ulcer development in sea-farmed fish, represents an as-yet-undescribed species. Comparative whole-genome analysis performed in the present study clustered five isolates, including TNO020T, in a distinct lineage within the genus Tenacibaculum . Phenotypic differences, high intra-cluster average nucleotide identity (ANI) values and low ANI values with other Tenacibaculum species support the proposal of a novel species, for which we propose the name Tenacibaculum piscium sp. nov. with strain TNO020T (=CCUG 73833T=NCIMB 15240T) as the type strain. Further, large-scale genome analyses confirmed the existence of two different phylogenetic lineages within ‘ T. finnmarkense ’, a species effectively but not validly published previously. ANI values just above the species delineation threshold of 95–96 % confirmed that both lineages belong to the same species. This result was also supported by DNA–DNA hybridization values. Phenotypically, the two conspecific lineages are distinguishable by differences in growth temperature range and ability to degrade l-proline. For the group of isolates already commonly known as ‘ T. finnmarkense ’, we propose the name Tenacibaculum finnmarkense sp. nov., with strain TNO006T (=CCUG 73831T=NCIMB 15238T) as the type strain. We further propose the subdivision of T. finnmarkense sp. nov. into two genomovars, T. finnmarkense genomovar finnmarkense with strain TNO006T (=CCUG 73831T=NCIMB 15238T) as the type strain and T. finnmarkense genomovar ulcerans with strain TNO010T (=CCUG 73832T=NCIMB 15239T) as the type strain.


2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 191-200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Walter Demczuk ◽  
Tarah Lynch ◽  
Irene Martin ◽  
Gary Van Domselaar ◽  
Morag Graham ◽  
...  

A large-scale, whole-genome comparison of CanadianNeisseria gonorrhoeaeisolates with high-level cephalosporin MICs was used to demonstrate a genomic epidemiology approach to investigate strain relatedness and dynamics. Although current typing methods have been very successful in tracing short-chain transmission of gonorrheal disease, investigating the temporal evolutionary relationships and geographical dissemination of highly clonal lineages requires enhanced resolution only available through whole-genome sequencing (WGS). Phylogenomic cluster analysis grouped 169 Canadian strains into 12 distinct clades. While someN. gonorrhoeaemultiantigen sequence types (NG-MAST) agreed with specific phylogenomic clades or subclades, other sequence types (ST) and closely related groups of ST were widely distributed among clades. Decreased susceptibility to extended-spectrum cephalosporins (ESC-DS) emerged among a group of diverse strains in Canada during the 1990s with a variety of nonmosaicpenAalleles, followed in 2000/2001 with thepenAmosaic X allele and then in 2007 with ST1407 strains with thepenAmosaic XXXIV allele. Five genetically distinct ESC-DS lineages were associated withpenAmosaic X, XXXV, and XXXIV alleles and nonmosaic XII and XIII alleles. ESC-DS with coresistance to azithromycin was observed in 5 strains with 23S rRNA C2599T or A2143G mutations. As the costs associated with WGS decline and analysis tools are streamlined, WGS can provide a more thorough understanding of strain dynamics, facilitate epidemiological studies to better resolve social networks, and improve surveillance to optimize treatment for gonorrheal infections.


2015 ◽  
Vol 59 (7) ◽  
pp. 4215-4225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miki Matsuo ◽  
Tomomi Hishinuma ◽  
Yuki Katayama ◽  
Keiichi Hiramatsu

ABSTRACTVarious mutations in therpoBgene, which encodes the RNA polymerase β subunit, are associated with increased vancomycin (VAN) resistance in vancomycin-intermediateStaphylococcus aureus(VISA) and heterogeneously VISA (hVISA) strains. We reported thatrpoBmutations are also linked to the expression of the recently found “slow VISA” (sVISA) phenotype (M. Saito, Y. Katayama, T. Hishinuma, A. Iwamoto, Y. Aiba, K Kuwahara-Arai, L. Cui, M. Matsuo, N. Aritaka, and K. Hiramatsu, Antimicrob Agents Chemother 58:5024–5035, 2014,http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/AAC.02470-13). Because RpoC and RpoB are components of RNA polymerase, we examined the effect of therpoC(P440L) mutation on the expression of the sVISA phenotype in the Mu3fdh2*V6-5 strain (V6-5), which was derived from a previously reported hVISA strain with the VISA phenotype. V6-5 had an extremely prolonged doubling time (DT) (72 min) and high vancomycin MIC (16 mg/liter). However, the phenotype of V6-5 was unstable, and the strain frequently reverted to hVISA with concomitant loss of low growth rate, cell wall thickness, and reduced autolysis. Whole-genome sequencing of phenotypic revertant strain V6-5-L1 and comparison with V6-5 revealed a second mutation, F562L, inrpoC. Introduction of the wild-type (WT)rpoCgene using a multicopy plasmid resolved the sVISA phenotype of V6-5, indicating that therpoC(P440L) mutant expressed the sVISA phenotype in hVISA. To investigate the mechanisms of resistance in the sVISA strain, we independently isolated an additional 10 revertants to hVISA and VISA. In subsequent whole-genome analysis, we identified compensatory mutations in the genes of three distinct functional categories: therpoCgene itself as regulatory mutations, peptidoglycan biosynthesis genes, andrelQ, which is involved in the stringent response. It appears that therpoC(P440L) mutation causes the sVISA phenotype by augmenting cell wall peptidoglycan synthesis and through the control of the stringent response.


2014 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 323-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Birgit De Smet ◽  
Derek S. Sarovich ◽  
Erin P. Price ◽  
Mark Mayo ◽  
Vanessa Theobald ◽  
...  

Burkholderia pseudomalleiisolates with shared multilocus sequence types (STs) have not been isolated from different continents. We identified two STs shared between Australia and Cambodia. Whole-genome analysis revealed substantial diversity within STs, correctly identified the Asian or Australian origin, and confirmed that these shared STs were due to homoplasy.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (45) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yujie Zhang ◽  
Yen-Te Liao ◽  
Vivian C. H. Wu

ABSTRACT Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) serotype O103 is one of the primary pathogenic contaminants of beef products, contributing to several foodborne outbreaks in recent years. Here, we report the whole-genome sequence of a STEC O103:H2 strain isolated from cattle feces that contains a locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) pathogenicity island.


2017 ◽  
Vol 86 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
T. Chang ◽  
J. W. Rosch ◽  
Z. Gu ◽  
H. Hakim ◽  
C. Hewitt ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTBacillus cereusremains an important cause of infections, particularly in immunocompromised hosts. While typically associated with enteric infections, disease manifestations can be quite diverse and include skin infections, bacteremia, pneumonia, and meningitis. Whether there are any genetic correlates of bacterial strains with particular clinical manifestations remains unknown. To address this gap in understanding, we undertook whole-genome analysis ofB. cereusstrains isolated from patients with a range of disease manifestations, including noninvasive colonizing disease, superficial skin infections, and invasive bacteremia. Interestingly, strains involved in skin infection tended to form a distinct genetic cluster compared to isolates associated with invasive disease. Other disease manifestations, despite not being exclusively clustered, nonetheless had unique genetic features. The unique features associated with the specific types of infections ranged from traditional virulence determinants to metabolic pathways and gene regulators. These data represent the largest genetic analysis to date of pathogenicB. cereusisolates with associated clinical parameters.


2020 ◽  
Vol 86 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrián Álvarez-Molina ◽  
María de Toro ◽  
Lorena Ruiz ◽  
Mercedes López ◽  
Miguel Prieto ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT This study was aimed at assessing whether the repeated exposure of 12 strains of Salmonella spp., Escherichia coli, and Listeria monocytogenes to alternative nonthermal decontamination techniques with UV light (UV-C) and nonthermal atmospheric plasma (NTAP) may cause the emergence of variants showing increased resistance to clinically relevant antibiotics (ampicillin, cefotaxime, ciprofloxacin, gentamicin, streptomycin, tetracycline, erythromycin, vancomycin, and colistin). UV-C and NTAP treatments were applied on the surface of inoculated brain heart infusion (BHI) agar plates. Survivors were recovered and after 24 h of growth in BHI broth were again subjected to the decontamination treatment; this was repeated for 10 consecutive cycles. A total of 174 strain/decontamination technique/antibiotic combinations were tested, and 12 variant strains with increased resistance to one of the antibiotics studied were identified, with the increases in the MICs in Mueller-Hinton broth ranging from 2- to 256-fold. The variant strains of Salmonella spp. isolated were further characterized through phenotypic screenings and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) analyses. Most changes in susceptibility were observed for antibiotics that act at the level of protein synthesis (aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, and glycylcyclines) or DNA replication (fluoroquinolones), as well as for polymyxins. No changes in resistance to β-lactams were detected. WGS analyses showed the occurrence of sequence alterations in some antibiotic cellular targets (e.g., gyrA for ciprofloxacin-resistant variants, rpsL for a streptomycin-resistant variant), accompanied by variations in stress response regulators and membrane transporters likely involved in the nonselective efflux of antibiotics, which altogether resulted in a low- to medium-level increase in microbial resistance to several antibiotics. IMPORTANCE The emergence and spread of antibiotic resistance along the food chain can be influenced by the different antimicrobial strategies used from farm to fork. This study evidences that two novel, not yet widely used, nonthermal microbial decontamination techniques, UV light and nonthermal atmospheric plasma, can select variants with increased resistance to various clinically relevant antibiotics, such as ciprofloxacin, streptomycin, tetracycline, and erythromycin. Whole-genome analysis of the resistant variants obtained for Salmonella spp. allowed identification of the genetic changes responsible for the observed phenotypes and suggested that some antimicrobial classes are more susceptible to the cross-resistance phenomena observed. This information is relevant, since these novel decontamination techniques are being proposed as possible alternative green techniques for the decontamination of environments and equipment in food and clinical settings.


mBio ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daichi Morita ◽  
Masatomo Morita ◽  
Munirul Alam ◽  
Asish K. Mukhopadhyay ◽  
Fatema-tuz Johura ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Vibrio cholerae serogroup O1 is responsible for epidemic and pandemic cholera and remains a global public health threat. This organism has been well established as a resident flora of the aquatic environment that alters its phenotypic and genotypic attributes for better adaptation to the environment. To reveal the diversity of clinical isolates of V. cholerae O1 in the Bay of Bengal, we performed whole-genome sequencing of isolates from Kolkata, India, and Dhaka, Bangladesh, collected between 2009 and 2016. Comparison with global isolates by phylogenetic analysis placed the current isolates in two Asian lineages, with lineages 1 and 2 predominant in Dhaka and Kolkata, respectively. Each lineage possessed different genetic traits in the cholera toxin B subunit gene, Vibrio seventh pandemic island II, integrative and conjugative element, and antibiotic-resistant genes. Thus, although recent global transmission of V. cholerae O1 from South Asia has been attributed only to isolates of lineage 2, another distinct lineage exists in Bengal. IMPORTANCE Cholera continues to be a global concern, as large epidemics have occurred recently in Haiti, Yemen, and countries of sub-Saharan Africa. A single lineage of Vibrio cholerae O1 has been considered to be introduced into these regions from South Asia and to cause the spread of cholera. Using genomic epidemiology, we showed that two distinct lineages exist in Bengal, one of which is linked to the global lineage. The other lineage was found only in Iran, Iraq, and countries in Asia and differed from the global lineage regarding cholera toxin variant and drug resistance profile. Therefore, the potential transmission of this lineage to other regions would likely cause worldwide cholera spread and may result in this lineage replacing the current global lineage.


2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (10) ◽  
pp. 5933-5941 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lalena Wallace ◽  
Sean C. Daugherty ◽  
Sushma Nagaraj ◽  
J. Kristie Johnson ◽  
Anthony D. Harris ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTDespite the increasing prevalence of the nosocomial pathogenAcinetobacter baumannii, little is known about which genomic components contribute to clinical presentation of this important pathogen. Most whole-genome comparisons ofA. baumanniihave focused on specific genomic regions associated with phenotypes in a limited number of genomes. In this work, we describe the results of a whole-genome comparative analysis of 254 surveillance isolates ofAcinetobacterspecies, 203 of which wereA. baumannii, isolated from perianal swabs and sputum samples collected as part of an infection control active surveillance program at the University of Maryland Medical Center. The collection of surveillance isolates includes both carbapenem-susceptible and -resistant isolates. Based on the whole-genome phylogeny, theA. baumanniiisolates collected belong to two major phylogenomic lineages. Results from multilocus sequence typing indicated that one of the major phylogenetic groups ofA. baumanniiwas comprised solely of strains from the international clonal lineage 2. The genomic content of theA. baumanniiisolates was examined using large-scale BLAST score ratio analysis to identify genes that are associated with carbapenem-susceptible and -resistant isolates, as well as genes potentially associated with the source of isolation. This analysis revealed a number of genes that were exclusive or at greater frequency in each of these classifications. This study is the most comprehensive genomic comparison ofAcinetobacterisolates from a surveillance study to date and provides important information that will contribute to our understanding of the success ofA. baumanniias a human pathogen.


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