Program in Cell and Molecular Biology, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, United States of America.
Arkansas High Performance Computing Center, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2023 Jul 5;18(7):e0283914. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0283914. eCollection 2023.
Staphylococcus agnetis is an emerging pathogen in chickens but has been most commonly isolated from sub-clinical mastitis in bovines. Previous whole-genome analyses for known virulence genes failed to identify determinants for the switch from mild ductal infections in cattle to severe infections in poultry. We now report identification of a family of 15 kbp, 17-19 gene mobile genetic elements (MGEs) specific to chicken osteomyelitis and dermatitis isolates of S. agnetis. These MGEs can be present in multiple copies per genome. The MGE has been vectored on a Staphylococcus phage that separately lysogenized two S. agnetis osteomyelitis strains. The S. agnetis genome from a broiler breeder case of ulcerative dermatitis contains 2 orthologs of this MGE, not associated with a prophage. BLASTn and phylogenetic analyses show that there are closely related intact MGEs found in genomes of S. aureus. The genome from a 1980s isolate from chickens in Ireland contains 3 copies of this MGE. More recent chicken isolates descended from that genome (Poland 2009, Oklahoma 2010, and Arkansas 2018) contain 2 to 4 related copies. Many of the genes of this MGE can be identified in disparate regions of the genomes of other chicken isolates of S. aureus. BLAST searches of the NCBI databases detect no similar MGEs outside of S. aureus and S. agnetis. These MGEs encode no proteins related to those produced by Staphylococcus aureus Pathogenicity Islands, which have been associated with the transition of S. aureus from human to chicken hosts. Other than mobilization functions, most of the genes in these new MGEs annotate as hypothetical proteins. The MGEs we describe appear to represent a new family of Chromosomal Islands (CIs) shared amongst S. agnetis and S. aureus. Further work is needed to understand the role of these CIs/MGEs in pathogenesis. Analysis of horizontal transfer of genetic elements between isolates and species of Staphylococci provides clues to evolution of host-pathogen interactions as well as revealing critical determinants for animal welfare and human diseases.
凝结亚种是鸡群中的一种新兴病原体,但最常从牛的亚临床乳腺炎中分离出来。先前针对已知毒力基因的全基因组分析未能确定从牛的轻度导管感染向禽类的严重感染转变的决定因素。我们现在报告了一种 15 kbp 的家族的鉴定,该家族由 17-19 个基因的移动遗传元件(MGEs)组成,这些 MGEs 专门针对鸡骨髓炎和凝结亚种的皮肤病分离株。这些 MGEs 可以在每个基因组中以多个拷贝存在。MGE 被一种分别溶原化两种凝结亚种骨髓炎菌株的葡萄球菌噬菌体携带。来自溃疡性皮肤病肉鸡种鸡病例的凝结亚种基因组包含该 MGE 的 2 个直系同源物,与前噬菌体无关。BLASTn 和系统发育分析表明,在金黄色葡萄球菌基因组中发现了密切相关的完整 MGE。来自爱尔兰鸡的 1980 年代分离株的基因组包含该 MGE 的 3 个拷贝。该基因组的后续鸡分离株(波兰 2009 年、俄克拉荷马 2010 年和阿肯色 2018 年)包含 2 到 4 个相关拷贝。该 MGE 的许多基因可以在其他金黄色葡萄球菌鸡分离株的基因组的不同区域中识别出来。NCBI 数据库的 BLAST 搜索未在金黄色葡萄球菌和凝结亚种之外检测到类似的 MGE。这些 MGE 不编码与金黄色葡萄球菌致病性岛产生的那些相关的蛋白质,金黄色葡萄球菌致病性岛与金黄色葡萄球菌从人类到鸡宿主的转变有关。除了移动功能外,这些新 MGE 中的大多数基因注释为假设蛋白。我们描述的 MGE 似乎代表了凝结亚种和金黄色葡萄球菌之间共享的新的染色体岛(CI)家族。需要进一步研究这些 CI/MGE 在发病机制中的作用。分析葡萄球菌属分离株和种间遗传元件的水平转移为宿主-病原体相互作用的进化以及揭示动物福利和人类疾病的关键决定因素提供了线索。