Teo Jeanette, Tan Sean Yang-Yi, Liu Yang, Tay Martin, Ding Yichen, Li Yingying, Kjelleberg Staffan, Givskov Michael, Lin Raymond T P, Yang Liang
Department of Laboratory Medicine, Microbiology Unit, National University Hospital, Singapore.
Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE), Nanyang Technological University, SingaporeSchool of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
Genome Biol Evol. 2014 May 6;6(5):1158-65. doi: 10.1093/gbe/evu094.
Acquisition of Elizabethkingia infections in intensive care units (ICUs) has risen in the past decade. Treatment of Elizabethkingia infections is challenging due to the lack of effective therapeutic regimens, leading to a high mortality rate. Elizabethkingia infections have long been attributed to Elizabethkingia meningoseptica. Recently, we used whole-genome sequencing to reveal that E. anophelis is the pathogenic agent for an Elizabethkingia outbreak at two ICUs. We performed comparative genomic analysis of seven hospital-isolated E. anophelis strains with five available Elizabethkingia spp. genomes deposited in the National Center for Biotechnology Information Database. A pan-genomic approach was applied to identify the core- and pan-genome for the Elizabethkingia genus. We showed that unlike the hospital-isolated pathogen E. meningoseptica ATCC 12535 strain, the hospital-isolated E. anophelis strains have genome content and organization similar to the E. anophelis Ag1 and R26 strains isolated from the midgut microbiota of the malaria mosquito vector Anopheles gambiae. Both the core- and accessory genomes of Elizabethkingia spp. possess genes conferring antibiotic resistance and virulence. Our study highlights that E. anophelis is an emerging bacterial pathogen for hospital environments.
在过去十年中，重症监护病房（ICU）中伊丽莎白菌感染的发生率有所上升。由于缺乏有效的治疗方案，伊丽莎白菌感染的治疗具有挑战性，导致死亡率很高。长期以来，伊丽莎白菌感染一直被认为是由脑膜炎败血伊丽莎白菌引起的。最近，我们使用全基因组测序揭示了嗜蚊伊丽莎白菌是两家ICU中伊丽莎白菌爆发的病原体。我们对七株医院分离的嗜蚊伊丽莎白菌菌株与五株保存在美国国立生物技术信息中心数据库中的可用伊丽莎白菌属基因组进行了比较基因组分析。采用泛基因组方法来确定伊丽莎白菌属的核心基因组和泛基因组。我们发现，与医院分离的病原体脑膜炎败血伊丽莎白菌ATCC 12535菌株不同，医院分离的嗜蚊伊丽莎白菌菌株的基因组内容和结构与从冈比亚按蚊的中肠微生物群中分离出的嗜蚊伊丽莎白菌Ag1和R26菌株相似。伊丽莎白菌属的核心基因组和辅助基因组都含有赋予抗生素抗性和毒力的基因。我们的研究强调，嗜蚊伊丽莎白菌是医院环境中一种新出现的细菌病原体。
