Transcriptional changes are involved in phenotype switching in Streptococcus equi subspecies equi

Differences in the genome, methylome, and transcriptome do not differentiate isolates of Streptococcus equi subsp. equi from horses with acute clinical signs from isolates of inapparent carriers

Streptococcus equi subsp. equi (SEE) is a host-restricted bacterium that causes the common infectious upper respiratory disease known as strangles in horses. Perpetuation of SEE infection appears attributable to inapparent carrier horses because it neither persists long-term in the environment nor infects other host mammals or vectors, and infection results in short-lived immunity. Whether pathogen factors enable SEE to remain in horses without causing clinical signs remains poorly understood. Thus, our objective was to use next-generation sequencing technologies to characterize the genome, methylome, and transcriptome of isolates of SEE from horses with acute clinical strangles and inapparent carrier horses—including isolates recovered from individual horses sampled repeatedly—to assess pathogen-associated changes that might reflect specific adaptions of SEE to the host that contribute to inapparent carriage. The accessory genome elements and methylome of SEE isolates from Sweden and Pennsylvania revealed no significant or consistent differences between acute clinical and inapparent carrier isolates of SEE. RNA sequencing of SEE isolates from Pennsylvania demonstrated no genes that were differentially expressed between acute clinical and inapparent carrier isolates of SEE. The absence of specific, consistent changes in the accessory genomes, methylomes, and transcriptomes of acute clinical and inapparent carrier isolates of SEE indicates that adaptations of SEE to the host are unlikely to explain the carrier state of SEE. Efforts to understand the carrier state of SEE should instead focus on host factors.

Insight into Rapid DNA-Specific Identification of Animal Origin Based on FTIR Analysis: A Case Study

In this study, a methodology has been proposed to identify the origin of animal DNA, employing high throughput extension accessory Fourier transform infrared (HT-FTIR) spectroscopy coupled with chemometrics. Important discriminatory characteristics were identified in the FTIR spectral peaks of 51 standard DNA samples (25 from bovine and 26 from fish origins), including 1710, 1659, 1608, 1531, 1404, 1375, 1248, 1091, 1060, and 966 cm⁻¹. In particular, the bands at 1708 and 1668 cm⁻¹ were higher in fish DNA than in bovine DNA, while the reverse was true for the band at 1530 cm⁻¹ was shown the opposite result. It was also found that the PO₂⁻ V_as/V_s ratio (1238/1094 cm⁻¹) was significantly higher (p < 0.05) in bovine DNA than in fish DNA. These discriminatory characteristics were further revealed to be closely related to the base content and base sequences of different samples. Multivariate analyses, such as principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) were conducted, and both the sensitivity and specificity values of PLS-DA model were one. This methodology has been further validated by 20 meat tissue samples (4 from bovine, 5 from ovine, 5 from porcine, and 6 from fish origins), and these were successfully differentiated. This case study demonstrated that FTIR spectroscopy coupled with PLS-DA discriminant model could provide a rapid, sensitive, and reliable approach for the identification of DNA of animal origin. This methodology could be widely applied in food, feed, forensic science, and archaeology studies.

Comparative Genome Analyses of Streptococcus suis Isolates from Endocarditis Demonstrate Persistence of Dual Phenotypic Clones

Many bacterial species coexist in the same niche as heterogeneous clones with different phenotypes; however, understanding of infectious diseases by polyphenotypic bacteria is still limited. In the present study, encapsulation in isolates of the porcine pathogen Streptococcus suis from persistent endocarditis lesions was examined. Coexistence of both encapsulated and unencapsulated S. suis isolates was found in 26 out of 59 endocarditis samples. The isolates were serotype 2, and belonged to two different sequence types (STs), ST1 and ST28. The genomes of each of the 26 pairs of encapsulated and unencapsulated isolates from the 26 samples were sequenced. The data showed that each pair of isolates had one or more unique nonsynonymous mutations in the cps gene, and the encapsulated and unencapsulated isolates from the same samples were closest to each other. Pairwise comparisons of the sequences of cps genes in 7 pairs of encapsulated and unencapsulated isolates identified insertion/deletions (indels) ranging from one to 104 bp in different cps genes of unencapsulated isolates. Capsule expression was restored in a subset of unencapsulated isolates by complementation in trans with cps expression vectors. Examination of gene content common to isolates indicated that mutation frequency was higher in ST28 pairs than in ST1 pairs. Genes within mobile genetic elements were mutation hot spots among ST28 isolates. Taken all together, our results demonstrate the coexistence of dual phenotype (encapsulated and unencapsulated) bacterial clones and suggest that the dual phenotypes arose independently in each farm by means of spontaneous mutations in cps genes.