Russini Valeria, De Marchis Maria Laura, Sampieri Cinzia, Onorati Cinzia, Zucchitta Piero, De Santis Paola, Varcasia Bianca Maria, De Santis Laura, Chiaverini Alexandra, Gattuso Antonietta, Vestri Annarita, Gasperetti Laura, Condoleo Roberto, Palla Luigi, Bossù Teresa
UOC Food Microbiology Unit, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana "M. Aleandri", 00178 Rome, Italy.
Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185 Rome, Italy.
Foods. 2025 May 9;14(10):1669. doi: 10.3390/foods14101669.
causes listeriosis, a severe foodborne disease with high mortality. Contamination with it poses significant risks to food safety and public health. Notably, genetic characteristic differences exist between strains causing human infections and those found in routine food inspections. This study examined the genotypic factors influencing the pathogenicity of , focusing on virulence gene profiles and key integrity genes like to explain these divergences. The dataset included 958 strains isolated from human, food, and environmental samples. Whole-genome sequencing identified virulence genes, and principal component analysis (PCA) examined 92 virulence genes and integrity to uncover potentially pathogenic patterns. The results highlight differences in virulence characteristics between strains of different origins. The integrity of and genes such as , , and were pivotal to pathogenicity. Strains with premature stop codons (PMSCs) in , associated with reduced virulence, accounted for a low percentage of human cases but over 30% of food isolates. Sequence types (STs) like ST121, ST580, and ST199 showed unique profiles, while ST9, dominant in food, occasionally caused human cases, posing risks to vulnerable individuals. This research highlights the complexity of the pathogenicity of and emphasizes the importance of genomic surveillance for effective risk assessment.
可导致李斯特菌病，这是一种死亡率很高的严重食源性疾病。它的污染对食品安全和公众健康构成重大风险。值得注意的是，导致人类感染的菌株与常规食品检查中发现的菌株之间存在遗传特征差异。本研究考察了影响其致病性的基因型因素，重点关注毒力基因谱和关键完整性基因，如 ，以解释这些差异。数据集包括从人类、食品和环境样本中分离出的958株菌株。全基因组测序确定了毒力基因，主成分分析（PCA）检测了92个毒力基因和 完整性，以揭示潜在的致病模式。结果突出了不同来源菌株在毒力特征上的差异。 以及 、 、 等基因的完整性对致病性至关重要。 中带有提前终止密码子（PMSCs）的菌株与毒力降低有关，在人类病例中占比很低，但在食品分离株中占比超过30%。ST121、ST580和ST199等序列类型（STs）呈现出独特的图谱，而在食品中占主导地位的ST9偶尔会导致人类病例，对易感个体构成风险。本研究突出了其致病性的复杂性，并强调了基因组监测对有效风险评估的重要性。
