scholarly journals Chromosomal Conjugative and Mobilizable Elements in Streptococcus suis: Major Actors in the Spreading of Antimicrobial Resistance and Bacteriocin Synthesis Genes

Pathogens ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginie Libante ◽  
Yves Nombre ◽  
Charles Coluzzi ◽  
Johan Staub ◽  
Gérard Guédon ◽  
...  

Streptococcus suis is a zoonotic pathogen suspected to be a reservoir of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes. The genomes of 214 strains of 27 serotypes were screened for AMR genes and chromosomal Mobile Genetic Elements (MGEs), in particular Integrative Conjugative Elements (ICEs) and Integrative Mobilizable Elements (IMEs). The functionality of two ICEs that host IMEs carrying AMR genes was investigated by excision tests and conjugation experiments. In silico search revealed 416 ICE-related and 457 IME-related elements. These MGEs exhibit an impressive diversity and plasticity with tandem accretions, integration of ICEs or IMEs inside ICEs and recombination between the elements. All of the detected 393 AMR genes are carried by MGEs. As previously described, ICEs are major vehicles of AMR genes in S. suis. Tn5252-related ICEs also appear to carry bacteriocin clusters. Furthermore, whereas the association of IME-AMR genes has never been described in S. suis, we found that most AMR genes are actually carried by IMEs. The autonomous transfer of an ICE to another bacterial species (Streptococcus thermophilus)—leading to the cis-mobilization of an IME carrying tet(O)—was obtained. These results show that besides ICEs, IMEs likely play a major role in the dissemination of AMR genes in S. suis.

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 1383
Author(s):  
Philip Kartalidis ◽  
Anargyros Skoulakis ◽  
Katerina Tsilipounidaki ◽  
Zoi Florou ◽  
Εfthymia Petinaki ◽  
...  

The present paper is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the role of Clostridioides difficile in the accumulation of genes associated with antimicrobial resistance and then the transmission of them to other pathogenic bacteria occupying the same human intestinal niche. The second part describes an in silico analysis of the genomes of C. difficile available in GenBank, with regard to the presence of mobile genetic elements and antimicrobial resistance genes. The diversity of the C. difficile genome is discussed, and the current status of resistance of the organisms to various antimicrobial agents is reviewed. The role of transposons associated with antimicrobial resistance is appraised; the importance of plasmids associated with antimicrobial resistance is discussed, and the significance of bacteriophages as a potential shuttle for antimicrobial resistance genes is presented. In the in silico study, 1101 C. difficile genomes were found to harbor mobile genetic elements; Tn6009, Tn6105, CTn7 and Tn6192, Tn6194 and IS256 were the ones more frequently identified. The genes most commonly harbored therein were: ermB, blaCDD, vanT, vanR, vanG and vanS. Tn6194 was likely associated with resistance to erythromycin, Tn6192 and CTn7 with resistance to the β-lactams and vancomycin, IS256 with resistance to aminoglycoside and Tn6105 to vancomycin.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pimlapas Leekitcharoenphon ◽  
Markus Hans Kristofer Johansson ◽  
Patrick Munk ◽  
Burkhard Malorny ◽  
Magdalena Skarżyńska ◽  
...  

AbstractThe emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is one of the biggest health threats globally. In addition, the use of antimicrobial drugs in humans and livestock is considered an important driver of antimicrobial resistance. The commensal microbiota, and especially the intestinal microbiota, has been shown to have an important role in the emergence of AMR. Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) also play a central role in facilitating the acquisition and spread of AMR genes. We isolated Escherichia coli (n = 627) from fecal samples in respectively 25 poultry, 28 swine, and 15 veal calf herds from 6 European countries to investigate the phylogeny of E. coli at country, animal host and farm levels. Furthermore, we examine the evolution of AMR in E. coli genomes including an association with virulence genes, plasmids and MGEs. We compared the abundance metrics retrieved from metagenomic sequencing and whole genome sequenced of E. coli isolates from the same fecal samples and farms. The E. coli isolates in this study indicated no clonality or clustering based on country of origin and genetic markers; AMR, and MGEs. Nonetheless, mobile genetic elements play a role in the acquisition of AMR and virulence genes. Additionally, an abundance of AMR was agreeable between metagenomic and whole genome sequencing analysis for several AMR classes in poultry fecal samples suggesting that metagenomics could be used as an indicator for surveillance of AMR in E. coli isolates and vice versa.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (5) ◽  
pp. 1027-1031 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irina R. Arkhipova ◽  
Phoebe A. Rice

BMJ Open ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. e021823 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tanja Stadler ◽  
Dominik Meinel ◽  
Lisandra Aguilar-Bultet ◽  
Jana S Huisman ◽  
Ruth Schindler ◽  
...  

IntroductionExtended-spectrum beta-lactamases (ESBL)-producing Enterobacteriaceae were first described in relation with hospital-acquired infections. In the 2000s, the epidemiology of ESBL-producing organisms changed as especially ESBL-producingEscherichia coliwas increasingly described as an important cause of community-acquired infections, supporting the hypothesis that in more recent years ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae have probably been imported into hospitals rather than vice versa. Transmission of ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae is complicated by ESBL genes being encoded on self-transmissible plasmids, which can be exchanged among the same and different bacterial species. The aim of this research project is to quantify hospital-wide transmission of ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae on both the level of bacterial species and the mobile genetic elements and to determine if hospital-acquired infections caused by ESBL producers are related to strains and mobile genetic elements predominantly circulating in the community or in the healthcare setting. This distinction is critical in prevention since the former emphasises the urgent need to establish or reinforce antibiotic stewardship programmes, and the latter would call for more rigorous infection control.Methods and analysisThis protocol presents an observational study that will be performed at the University Hospital Basel and in the city of Basel, Switzerland. ESBL-producing Enterobacteriaceae will be collected from any specimens obtained by routine clinical practice or by active screening in both inpatient and outpatient settings, as well as from wastewater samples and foodstuffs, both collected monthly over a 12-month period for analyses by whole genome sequencing. Bacterial chromosomal, plasmid and ESBL-gene sequences will be compared within the cohort to determine genetic relatedness and migration between humans and their environment.Ethics and disseminationThis study has been approved by the local ethics committee (Ethikkommission Nordwest-und Zentralschweiz) as a quality control project (Project-ID 2017–00100). The results of this study will be published in peer-reviewed medical journals, communicated to participants, the general public and all relevant stakeholders.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katrine Skov Alanin ◽  
Tue Sparholt Jørgensen ◽  
Patrick Browne ◽  
Bent Petersen ◽  
Leise Riber ◽  
...  

AbstractMobile genetic elements (MGEs) are instrumental in natural prokaryotic genome editing, permitting genome plasticity and allowing microbes to accumulate immense genetic diversity. MGEs include DNA elements such as plasmids, transposons and Insertion Sequences (IS-elements), as well as bacteriophages (phages), and they serve as a vast communal gene pool. These mobile DNA elements represent a human health risk as they can add new traits, such as antibiotic resistance or virulence, to a bacterial strain. Sequencing libraries targeting circular MGEs, referred to as mobilomes, allows the expansion of our current understanding of the mechanisms behind the mobility, prevalence and content of these elements. However, metamobilomes from bacterial communities are not studied to the same extent as metagenomics, partly because of methodological biases arising from multiple displacement amplification (MDA), often used in previous metamobilome publications. In this study, we show that MDA is detrimental to the detection of larger-sized plasmids if small plasmids are present by comparing the abundances of reads mapping to plasmids in a wastewater sample spiked with a mock community of selected plasmids with and without MDA. Furthermore, we show that it is possible to produce samples consisting almost exclusively of circular MGEs and obtain a catalog of larger, complete, circular MGEs from complex samples without the use of MDA.ImportanceMobile genetic elements (MGEs) can transport genetic information between genomes in different bacterial species, adding new traits, potentially generating dangerous multidrug-resistant pathogens. In fact, plasmids and circular MGEs can encode bacterial genetic specializations such as virulence, resistance to metals, antimicrobial compounds, and bacteriophages, as well as the degradation of xenobiotics. For this reason, circular MGEs are crucial to investigate, but they are often missed in metagenomics and ecological studies. In this study, we present, for the first time, an improved method, which reduces the bias towards small MGEs and we demonstrate that this method can unveil larger, complete circular MGEs from complex samples without the use of multiple displacement amplification. This method may result in the detection of larger-sized plasmids that have hitherto remained unnoticed and therefore has the potential to reveal novel accessory genes, acting as possible targets in the development of preventive strategies directed at pathogens.


mBio ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Stoesser ◽  
Anna E. Sheppard ◽  
Louise Pankhurst ◽  
Nicola De Maio ◽  
Catrin E. Moore ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT Escherichia coli sequence type 131 (ST131) has emerged globally as the most predominant extraintestinal pathogenic lineage within this clinically important species, and its association with fluoroquinolone and extended-spectrum cephalosporin resistance impacts significantly on treatment. The evolutionary histories of this lineage, and of important antimicrobial resistance elements within it, remain unclearly defined. This study of the largest worldwide collection ( n = 215) of sequenced ST131 E. coli isolates to date demonstrates that the clonal expansion of two previously recognized antimicrobial-resistant clades, C1/ H 30R and C2/ H 30Rx, started around 25 years ago, consistent with the widespread introduction of fluoroquinolones and extended-spectrum cephalosporins in clinical medicine. These two clades appear to have emerged in the United States, with the expansion of the C2/ H 30Rx clade driven by the acquisition of a bla CTX-M-15 -containing IncFII-like plasmid that has subsequently undergone extensive rearrangement. Several other evolutionary processes influencing the trajectory of this drug-resistant lineage are described, including sporadic acquisitions of CTX-M resistance plasmids and chromosomal integration of bla CTX-M within subclusters followed by vertical evolution. These processes are also occurring for another family of CTX-M gene variants more recently observed among ST131, the bla CTX-M-14/14-like group. The complexity of the evolutionary history of ST131 has important implications for antimicrobial resistance surveillance, epidemiological analysis, and control of emerging clinical lineages of E. coli . These data also highlight the global imperative to reduce specific antibiotic selection pressures and demonstrate the important and varied roles played by plasmids and other mobile genetic elements in the perpetuation of antimicrobial resistance within lineages. IMPORTANCE Escherichia coli , perennially a major bacterial pathogen, is becoming increasingly difficult to manage due to emerging resistance to all preferred antimicrobials. Resistance is concentrated within specific E. coli lineages, such as sequence type 131 (ST131). Clarification of the genetic basis for clonally associated resistance is key to devising intervention strategies. We used high-resolution genomic analysis of a large global collection of ST131 isolates to define the evolutionary history of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase production in ST131. We documented diverse contributory genetic processes, including stable chromosomal integrations of resistance genes, persistence and evolution of mobile resistance elements within sublineages, and sporadic acquisition of different resistance elements. Both global distribution and regional segregation were evident. The diversity of resistance element acquisition and propagation within ST131 indicates a need for control and surveillance strategies that target both bacterial strains and mobile genetic elements.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew G. Durrant ◽  
Michelle M. Li ◽  
Ben Siranosian ◽  
Ami S. Bhatt

AbstractMobile genetic elements contribute to bacterial adaptation and evolution; however, detecting these elements in a high-throughput and unbiased manner remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate ade novoapproach to identify mobile elements from short-read sequencing data. The method identifies the precise site of mobile element insertion and infers the identity of the inserted sequence. This is an improvement over previous methods that either rely on curated databases of known mobile elements or rely on ‘split-read’ alignments that assume the inserted element exists within the reference genome. We apply our approach to 12,419 sequenced isolates of nine prevalent bacterial pathogens, and we identify hundreds of known and novel mobile genetic elements, including many candidate insertion sequences. We find that the mobile element repertoire and insertion rate vary considerably across species, and that many of the identified mobile elements are biased toward certain target sequences, several of them being highly specific. Mobile element insertion hotspots often cluster near genes involved in mechanisms of antibiotic resistance, and such insertions are associated with antibiotic resistance in laboratory experiments and clinical isolates. Finally, we demonstrate that mutagenesis caused by these mobile elements contributes to antibiotic resistance in a genome-wide association study of mobile element insertions in pathogenicEscherichia coli. In summary, by applying ade novoapproach to precisely identify mobile genetic elements and their insertion sites, we thoroughly characterize the mobile element repertoire and insertion spectrum of nine pathogenic bacterial species and find that mobile element insertions play a significant role in the evolution of clinically relevant phenotypes, such as antibiotic resistance.


2022 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giarlã Cunha da Silva ◽  
Osiel Silva Gonçalves ◽  
Jéssica Nogueira Rosa ◽  
Kiara Campos França ◽  
Janine Thérèse Bossé ◽  
...  

Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) drive important ecological relationships in microbial communities and pathogen-host interaction. In this study, we investigated the resistome-associated mobilome in 345 publicly available Pasteurellaceae genomes, a large family of Gram-negative bacteria including major human and animal pathogens. We generated a comprehensive dataset of the mobilome integrated into genomes, including 10,820 insertion sequences, 2,939 prophages, and 43 integrative and conjugative elements. Also, we assessed plasmid sequences of Pasteurellaceae. Our findings greatly expand the diversity of MGEs for the family, including a description of novel elements. We discovered that MGEs are comparable and dispersed across species and that they also co-occur in genomes, contributing to the family’s ecology via gene transfer. In addition, we investigated the impact of these elements in the dissemination and shaping of AMR genes. A total of 55 different AMR genes were mapped to 721 locations in the dataset. MGEs are linked with 77.6% of AMR genes discovered, indicating their important involvement in the acquisition and transmission of such genes. This study provides an uncharted view of the Pasteurellaceae by demonstrating the global distribution of resistance genes linked with MGEs.


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