Division of Microbiology, Osaka Institute of Public Health, Osaka, Japan.
J Vet Med Sci. 2023 Jul 1;85(7):735-738. doi: 10.1292/jvms.22-0576. Epub 2023 May 31.
Diphtheria toxin-producing Corynebacterium ulcerans is a zoonotic pathogen that causes human diphtheria-like symptoms. After performing whole-genome analysis of the five isolates from sheltered cats in Osaka, Japan, we compared them with genome sequences of 25 strains of C. ulcerans from a public database. The five isolates from cats harbored 14 genes encoding possible virulence factors in diphtheria-toxin-producing C. ulcerans. These isolates also had diphtheria toxin gene-encoding prophage in their chromosome, although differences were found in other prophages possession. Whole-genome single-nucleotide polymorphism analysis showed that cats' isolates belonged to ST337 branch, as were strains from Japanese human patients, with 41 or more single-nucleotide polymorphisms variations. High-resolution single-nucleotide polymorphism analysis of C. ulcerans was sufficient to distinguish cats' isolates clearly as not different by conventional genotyping methods.
产白喉毒素溃疡棒状杆菌是一种人畜共患病病原体，可引起类似白喉的人类症状。在对日本大阪收容所的五只猫的分离株进行全基因组分析后，我们将它们与公共数据库中 25 株产白喉毒素溃疡棒状杆菌的基因组序列进行了比较。这五只来自猫的分离株携带了 14 个编码产白喉毒素溃疡棒状杆菌可能毒力因子的基因。这些分离株的染色体中也存在编码白喉毒素的噬菌体，但其他噬菌体的存在存在差异。全基因组单核苷酸多态性分析显示，猫的分离株属于 ST337 分支，与来自日本人类患者的菌株相同，有 41 个或更多的单核苷酸多态性变异。对产白喉毒素溃疡棒状杆菌的高分辨率单核苷酸多态性分析足以清晰地区分猫的分离株，而常规的基因分型方法则无法区分。
