Biomedical Sciences Program, University of Science and Technology, Zewail City of Science and Technology, October Gardens, 6th of October City, Giza 12578, Egypt.
Department of Agricultural Biotechnology, Faculty of Agriculture, Ain Shams University, Cairo 11566, Egypt.
Genes (Basel). 2021 Jan 7;12(1):72. doi: 10.3390/genes12010072.
spp. represents the most common cause of gastroenteritis worldwide with the potential to cause serious sequelae. The ability of to survive stressful environmental conditions has been directly linked with food-borne illness. Toxin-antitoxin (TA) modules play an important role as defense systems against antimicrobial agents and are considered an invaluable strategy harnessed by bacterial pathogens to survive in stressful environments. Although TA modules have been extensively studied in model organisms such as , the TA landscape in remains largely unexplored. Therefore, in this study, a comprehensive in silico screen of 111 (90 and 21 ) isolates recovered from different food and clinical sources was performed. We identified 10 type II TA systems belonging to four TA families predicted in genomes. Furthermore, there was a significant association between the clonal population structure and distribution of TA modules; more specifically, most (12/13) of the isolates belonging to ST-21 isolates possess TA modules. Finally, we observed a high degree of shared synteny among isolates bearing certain TA systems or even coexisting pairs of TA systems. Collectively, these findings provide useful insights about the distribution of TA modules in a heterogeneous pool of isolates from different sources, thus developing a better understanding regarding the mechanisms by which these pathogens survive stressful environmental conditions, which will further aid in the future designing of more targeted antimicrobials.
spp. 是全球最常见的胃肠炎病因，有可能导致严重的后遗症。 能够在充满压力的环境条件下生存，这与食源性疾病直接相关。毒素-抗毒素 (TA) 模块作为对抗抗菌剂的防御系统起着重要作用，被认为是细菌病原体在充满压力的环境中生存的宝贵策略。尽管 TA 模块在 等模式生物中得到了广泛研究，但 中的 TA 景观在很大程度上仍未被探索。因此，在这项研究中，对从不同食物和临床来源中回收的 111 株 (90 株 和 21 株) 进行了全面的计算机筛选。我们在 基因组中鉴定出了 10 种属于四个 TA 家族的 II 型 TA 系统。此外，克隆种群结构与 TA 模块的分布之间存在显著关联；更具体地说，属于 ST-21 株的大多数 (12/13) 分离株都携带 TA 模块。最后，我们观察到携带某些 TA 系统的分离株之间甚至共存的 TA 系统对之间存在高度的同基因。总之，这些发现为不同来源的 分离株中 TA 模块的分布提供了有用的见解，从而更好地了解这些病原体如何在充满压力的环境条件下生存的机制，这将有助于未来设计更有针对性的抗菌药物。
