State Key Laboratory of Pathogen and Biosecurity, Beijing Institute of Microbiology and Epidemiology, Beijing 100071, PR China.
State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing 102206, PR China.
Microb Genom. 2022 Feb;8(2). doi: 10.1099/mgen.0.000769.
is a food-borne pathogen with epidemic potential that causes cholera-like acute gastroenteritis and sometimes extraintestinal infections in humans. However, research on its genetic diversity and pathogenicity-related genetic elements based on whole genome sequences is lacking. In this study, we collected and sequenced 130 strains of from 14 provinces of China, and also determined the susceptibility of 35 of the strains to 30 different antibiotics. Combined with 52 publicly available genomes, we inferred the population structure and investigated the characteristics of pathogenicity-related factors. The strains exhibited high levels of homologous recombination and were assigned to two major populations, VflPop1 and VflPop2, according to the different compositions of their gene pools. VflPop2 was subdivided into groups 2.1 and 2.2. Except for VflPop2.2, which consisted only of Asian strains, the strains in VflPop1 and VflPop2.1 were distributed in the Americas, Asia and Europe. Analysis of the pathogenicity potential of showed that most of the identified virulence-related genes or gene clusters showed high prevalence in , except for three mobile genetic elements: pBD146, ICEInd1 and MGIInd1, which were scattered in only a few strains. A total of 21 antimicrobial resistance genes were identified in the genomes of the 182 strains analysed in this study, and 19 (90%) of them were exclusively present in VflPop2. Notably, the tetracycline resistance-related gene (35) was present in 150 (95%) of the strains in VflPop2, and in only one (4%) strain in VflPop1, indicating it was population-specific. In total, 91% of the 35 selected strains showed resistance to cefazolin, indicating has a high resistance rate to cefazolin. Among the 15 genomes that carried the previously reported drug resistance-related plasmid pBD146, 11 (73%) showed resistance to trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, which we inferred was related to the presence of the gene in the plasmid. On the basis of the population genomics analysis, the genetic diversity, population structure and distribution of pathogenicity-related factors of were delineated in this study. The results will provide further clues regarding the evolution and pathogenic mechanisms of , and improve our knowledge for the prevention and control of this pathogen.
是一种食源性病原体，具有流行潜力，可导致霍乱样急性胃肠炎，有时还可导致人类肠道外感染。然而，基于全基因组序列对其遗传多样性和致病性相关遗传因子的研究还很缺乏。在这项研究中，我们收集并测序了来自中国 14 个省的 130 株 ，并测定了其中 35 株对 30 种不同抗生素的敏感性。结合 52 株公开的 基因组，我们推断了种群结构，并研究了致病性相关因子的特征。这些 菌株表现出高水平的同源重组，并根据其基因库的不同组成被分为两个主要种群，VflPop1 和 VflPop2。除了仅由亚洲菌株组成的 VflPop2.2 外，VflPop1 和 VflPop2.1 中的菌株分布在美洲、亚洲和欧洲。对 的致病性潜力分析表明，除了三个移动遗传因子 pBD146、ICEInd1 和 MGIInd1 外，大多数鉴定出的毒力相关基因或基因簇在 中广泛存在，这三个移动遗传因子仅存在于少数菌株中。在本研究分析的 182 株 基因组中共鉴定出 21 种抗菌药物耐药基因，其中 19 种（90%）仅存在于 VflPop2 中。值得注意的是，四环素耐药相关基因（35）存在于 VflPop2 中的 150 株（95%）菌株中，而在 VflPop1 中仅存在于 1 株（4%）菌株中，表明其具有种群特异性。总的来说，35 株选定菌株中有 91%对头孢唑啉表现出耐药性，表明 对头孢唑啉具有较高的耐药率。在携带先前报道的耐药相关质粒 pBD146 的 15 个基因组中，有 11 个（73%）对甲氧苄啶-磺胺甲恶唑表现出耐药性，我们推断这与质粒中 基因的存在有关。基于群体基因组学分析，本研究描绘了 的遗传多样性、种群结构和致病性相关因子的分布。这些结果将为进一步揭示 的进化和致病机制提供线索，并为预防和控制这种病原体提供更深入的了解。
