Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, University of Minnesota, Saint Paul, MN 55108.
EcoSal Plus. 2021 Feb;9(2). doi: 10.1128/ecosalplus.ESP-0013-2020.
Bacterial plasmids have been linked to virulence in and since their initial discovery. Though the plasmid repertoire of these bacterial species is extremely diverse, virulence-associated attributes tend to be limited to a small subset of plasmid types. This is particularly true for extraintestinal pathogenic , or ExPEC, where a handful of plasmids have been recognized to confer virulence- and fitness-associated traits. The purpose of this review is to highlight the biological and genomic attributes of ExPEC virulence-associated plasmids, with an emphasis on high-risk dominant ExPEC clones. Two specific plasmid types are highlighted to illustrate the independently evolved commonalities of these clones relative to plasmid content. Furthermore, the dissemination of these plasmids within and between bacterial species is examined. These examples demonstrate the evolution of high-risk clones toward common goals, and they show that rare transfer events can shape the ecological landscape of dominant clones within a pathotype.
自最初发现以来，细菌质粒与 和 的毒力有关。尽管这些细菌物种的质粒谱极其多样化，但与毒力相关的特征往往局限于一小部分质粒类型。这在肠外致病性 ，即 ExPEC 中尤其如此，其中少数几种质粒已被确认为具有与毒力和适应性相关的特征。本综述的目的是强调与 ExPEC 毒力相关的质粒的生物学和基因组属性，重点是高风险的优势 ExPEC 克隆。突出了两种特定的质粒类型，以说明相对于质粒含量，这些克隆独立进化的共同特征。此外，还研究了这些质粒在细菌种内和种间的传播。这些例子表明，高危克隆朝着共同的目标进化，并且表明罕见的转移事件可以塑造优势克隆在一种病原体中的生态景观。
