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Prieto A, Miró L, Margolles Y, Bernabeu M, Salguero D, Merino S, Tomas J, Corbera JA, Perez-Bosque A, Huttener M, Fernández LÁ, Juarez A. Targeting plasmid-encoded proteins that contain immunoglobulin-like domains to combat antimicrobial resistance. eLife 2024; 13:RP95328. [PMID: 39046772 PMCID: PMC11268884 DOI: 10.7554/elife.95328] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a significant threat to human health. Although vaccines have been developed to combat AMR, it has proven challenging to associate specific vaccine antigens with AMR. Bacterial plasmids play a crucial role in the transmission of AMR. Our recent research has identified a group of bacterial plasmids (specifically, IncHI plasmids) that encode large molecular mass proteins containing bacterial immunoglobulin-like domains. These proteins are found on the external surface of the bacterial cells, such as in the flagella or conjugative pili. In this study, we show that these proteins are antigenic and can protect mice from infection caused by an AMR Salmonella strain harboring one of these plasmids. Furthermore, we successfully generated nanobodies targeting these proteins, that were shown to interfere with the conjugative transfer of IncHI plasmids. Considering that these proteins are also encoded in other groups of plasmids, such as IncA/C and IncP2, targeting them could be a valuable strategy in combating AMR infections caused by bacteria harboring different groups of AMR plasmids. Since the selected antigens are directly linked to AMR itself, the protective effect extends beyond specific microorganisms to include all those carrying the corresponding resistance plasmids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alejandro Prieto
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics, University of BarcelonaBarcelonaSpain
| | - Luïsa Miró
- Department of Biochemistry and Physiology, Universitat de BarcelonaBarcelonaSpain
- Institut de Nutrició i Seguretat Alimentària, Universitat de BarcelonaBarcelonaSpain
| | - Yago Margolles
- Department of Microbial Biotechnology, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CNB-CSIC)MadridSpain
| | - Manuel Bernabeu
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics, University of BarcelonaBarcelonaSpain
| | - David Salguero
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics, University of BarcelonaBarcelonaSpain
| | - Susana Merino
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics, University of BarcelonaBarcelonaSpain
| | - Joan Tomas
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics, University of BarcelonaBarcelonaSpain
| | - Juan Alberto Corbera
- Instituto Universitario de Investigaciones Biomédicas y Sanitarias (IUIBS), Facultad de Veterinaria, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), Campus Universitario de ArucasLas PalmasSpain
| | - Anna Perez-Bosque
- Department of Biochemistry and Physiology, Universitat de BarcelonaBarcelonaSpain
- Institut de Nutrició i Seguretat Alimentària, Universitat de BarcelonaBarcelonaSpain
| | - Mario Huttener
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics, University of BarcelonaBarcelonaSpain
| | - Luis Ángel Fernández
- Department of Microbial Biotechnology, Centro Nacional de Biotecnología, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CNB-CSIC)MadridSpain
| | - Antonio Juarez
- Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics, University of BarcelonaBarcelonaSpain
- Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia, The Barcelona Institute of Science and TechnologyBarcelonaSpain
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2
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P P, Riyaz A, Choudhury A, Choudhury PR, Pradhan N, Singh A, Nakul M, Dudeja C, Yadav A, Nath SK, Khanna V, Sharma T, Pradhan G, Takkar S, Rawal K. DNASCANNER v2: A Web-Based Tool to Analyze the Characteristic Properties of Nucleotide Sequences. J Comput Biol 2024; 31:651-669. [PMID: 38662479 DOI: 10.1089/cmb.2023.0227] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 07/18/2024] Open
Abstract
Throughout the process of evolution, DNA undergoes the accumulation of distinct mutations, which can often result in highly organized patterns that serve various essential biological functions. These patterns encompass various genomic elements and provide valuable insights into the regulatory and functional aspects of DNA. The physicochemical, mechanical, thermodynamic, and structural properties of DNA sequences play a crucial role in the formation of specific patterns. These properties contribute to the three-dimensional structure of DNA and influence their interactions with proteins, regulatory elements, and other molecules. In this study, we introduce DNASCANNER v2, an advanced version of our previously published algorithm DNASCANNER for analyzing DNA properties. The current tool is built using the FLASK framework in Python language. Featuring a user-friendly interface tailored for nonspecialized researchers, it offers an extensive analysis of 158 DNA properties, including mono/di/trinucleotide frequencies, structural, physicochemical, thermodynamics, and mechanical properties of DNA sequences. The tool provides downloadable results and offers interactive plots for easy interpretation and comparison between different features. We also demonstrate the utility of DNASCANNER v2 in analyzing splice-site junctions, casposon insertion sequences, and transposon insertion sites (TIS) within the bacterial and human genomes, respectively. We also developed a deep learning module for the prediction of potential TIS in a given nucleotide sequence. In the future, we aim to optimize the performance of this prediction model through extensive training on larger data sets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Preeti P
- Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Azeen Riyaz
- Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Alakto Choudhury
- Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Priyanka Ray Choudhury
- Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Nischal Pradhan
- Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Abhishek Singh
- Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Mihir Nakul
- Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Chhavi Dudeja
- Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Abhijeet Yadav
- Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Swarsat Kaushik Nath
- Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Vrinda Khanna
- Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Trapti Sharma
- Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Gayatri Pradhan
- Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Simran Takkar
- Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
| | - Kamal Rawal
- Center for Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, Amity Institute of Biotechnology, Amity University, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India
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3
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Feng T, Wu S, Zhou H, Fang Z. MOBFinder: a tool for mobilization typing of plasmid metagenomic fragments based on a language model. Gigascience 2024; 13:giae047. [PMID: 39101782 PMCID: PMC11299106 DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giae047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/28/2024] [Revised: 05/31/2024] [Accepted: 06/24/2024] [Indexed: 08/06/2024] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Mobilization typing (MOB) is a classification scheme for plasmid genomes based on their relaxase gene. The host ranges of plasmids of different MOB categories are diverse, and MOB is crucial for investigating plasmid mobilization, especially the transmission of resistance genes and virulence factors. However, MOB typing of plasmid metagenomic data is challenging due to the highly fragmented characteristics of metagenomic contigs. RESULTS We developed MOBFinder, an 11-class classifier, for categorizing plasmid fragments into 10 MOB types and a nonmobilizable category. We first performed MOB typing to classify complete plasmid genomes according to relaxase information and then constructed an artificial benchmark dataset of plasmid metagenomic fragments (PMFs) from those complete plasmid genomes whose MOB types are well annotated. Next, based on natural language models, we used word vectors to characterize the PMFs. Several random forest classification models were trained and integrated to predict fragments of different lengths. Evaluating the tool using the benchmark dataset, we found that MOBFinder outperforms previous tools such as MOBscan and MOB-suite, with an overall accuracy approximately 59% higher than that of MOB-suite. Moreover, the balanced accuracy, harmonic mean, and F1-score reached up to 99% for some MOB types. When applied to a cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D), MOBFinder offered insights suggesting that the MOBF type plasmid, which is widely present in Escherichia and Klebsiella, and the MOBQ type plasmid might accelerate antibiotic resistance transmission in patients with T2D. CONCLUSIONS To the best of our knowledge, MOBFinder is the first tool for MOB typing of PMFs. The tool is freely available at https://github.com/FengTaoSMU/MOBFinder.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tao Feng
- Microbiome Medicine Center, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510280, China
| | - Shufang Wu
- Microbiome Medicine Center, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510280, China
| | - Hongwei Zhou
- Microbiome Medicine Center, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510280, China
| | - Zhencheng Fang
- Microbiome Medicine Center, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou 510280, China
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4
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Tokuda M, Shintani M. Microbial evolution through horizontal gene transfer by mobile genetic elements. Microb Biotechnol 2024; 17:e14408. [PMID: 38226780 PMCID: PMC10832538 DOI: 10.1111/1751-7915.14408] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/07/2023] [Revised: 12/20/2023] [Accepted: 01/02/2024] [Indexed: 01/17/2024] Open
Abstract
Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) are crucial for horizontal gene transfer (HGT) in bacteria and facilitate their rapid evolution and adaptation. MGEs include plasmids, integrative and conjugative elements, transposons, insertion sequences and bacteriophages. Notably, the spread of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), which poses a serious threat to public health, is primarily attributable to HGT through MGEs. This mini-review aims to provide an overview of the mechanisms by which MGEs mediate HGT in microbes. Specifically, the behaviour of conjugative plasmids in different environments and conditions was discussed, and recent methodologies for tracing the dynamics of MGEs were summarised. A comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms underlying HGT and the role of MGEs in bacterial evolution and adaptation is important to develop strategies to combat the spread of ARGs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maho Tokuda
- Department of Environment and Energy Systems, Graduate School of Science and TechnologyShizuoka UniversityHamamatsuJapan
| | - Masaki Shintani
- Department of Environment and Energy Systems, Graduate School of Science and TechnologyShizuoka UniversityHamamatsuJapan
- Research Institute of Green Science and TechnologyShizuoka UniversityHamamatsuJapan
- Japan Collection of MicroorganismsRIKEN BioResource Research CenterIbarakiJapan
- Graduate School of Integrated Science and TechnologyShizuoka UniversityHamamatsuJapan
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5
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Yin L, Wang X, Xu H, Yin B, Wang X, Zhang Y, Li X, Luo Y, Chen Z. Unrecognized risk of perfluorooctane sulfonate in promoting conjugative transfers of bacterial antibiotic resistance genes. Appl Environ Microbiol 2023; 89:e0053323. [PMID: 37565764 PMCID: PMC10537727 DOI: 10.1128/aem.00533-23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2023] [Accepted: 06/28/2023] [Indexed: 08/12/2023] Open
Abstract
Antibiotic resistance is a major global health crisis facing humanity, with horizontal gene transfer (HGT) as a principal dissemination mechanism in the natural and clinical environments. Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are emerging contaminants of global concern due to their high persistence in the environment and adverse effects on humans. However, it is unknown whether PFASs affect the HGT of bacterial antibiotic resistance. Using a genetically engineered Escherichia coli MG1655 as the donor of plasmid-encoded antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), E. coli J53 and soil bacterial community as two different recipients, this study demonstrated that the conjugation frequency of ARGs between two E. coli strains was (1.45 ± 0.17) × 10-5 and perfluorooctane sulfonate (PFOS) at environmentally relevant concentrations (2-50 μg L-1) increased conjugation transfer between E. coli strains by up to 3.25-fold. Increases in reactive oxygen species production, cell membrane permeability, biofilm formation capacity, and cell contact in two E. coli strains were proposed as major promotion mechanisms from PFOS exposure. Weighted gene co-expression network analysis of transcriptome data identified a series of candidate genes whose expression changes could contribute to the increase in conjugation transfer induced by PFOS. Furthermore, PFOS also generally increased the ARG transfer into the studied soil bacterial community, although the uptake ability of different community members of the plasmid either increased or decreased upon PFOS exposure depending on specific bacterial taxa. Overall, this study reveals an unrecognized risk of PFOS in accelerating the dissemination of antibiotic resistance. IMPORTANCE Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) are emerging contaminants of global concern due to their high persistence in the environment and adverse health effects. Although the influence of environmental pollutants on the spread of antibiotic resistance, one of the biggest threats to global health, has attracted increasing attention in recent years, it is unknown whether environmental residues of PFASs affect the dissemination of bacterial antibiotic resistance. Considering PFASs, often called "forever" compounds, have significantly higher environmental persistence than most emerging organic contaminants, exploring the effect of PFASs on the spread of antibiotic resistance is more environmentally relevant and has essential ecological and health significance. By systematically examining the influence of perfluorooctane sulfonate on the antibiotic resistance gene conjugative transfer, not only at the single-strain level but also at the community level, this study has uncovered an unrecognized risk of PFASs in promoting conjugative transfers of bacterial antibiotic resistance genes, which could be incorporated into the risk assessment framework of PFASs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lichun Yin
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
| | - Xiaolong Wang
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
| | - Han Xu
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
| | - Bo Yin
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
| | - Xingshuo Wang
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
| | - Yulin Zhang
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
| | - Xinyao Li
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
| | - Yi Luo
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
| | - Zeyou Chen
- Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin, China
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6
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Botts RT, Page DM, Bravo JA, Brown ML, Castilleja CC, Guzman VL, Hall S, Henderson JD, Kenney SM, Lensink ME, Paternoster MV, Pyle SL, Ustick L, Walters-Laird CJ, Top EM, Cummings DE. Polluted wetlands contain multidrug-resistance plasmids encoding CTX-M-type extended-spectrum β-lactamases. Plasmid 2023; 126:102682. [PMID: 37023995 PMCID: PMC10213127 DOI: 10.1016/j.plasmid.2023.102682] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2022] [Revised: 03/27/2023] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 04/08/2023]
Abstract
While most detailed analyses of antibiotic resistance plasmids focus on those found in clinical isolates, less is known about the vast environmental reservoir of mobile genetic elements and the resistance and virulence factors they encode. We selectively isolated three strains of cefotaxime-resistant Escherichia coli from a wastewater-impacted coastal wetland. The cefotaxime-resistant phenotype was transmissible to a lab strain of E. coli after one hour, with frequencies as high as 10-3 transconjugants per recipient. Two of the plasmids also transferred cefotaxime resistance to Pseudomonas putida, but these were unable to back-transfer this resistance from P. putida to E. coli. In addition to the cephalosporins, E. coli transconjugants inherited resistance to at least seven distinct classes of antibiotics. Complete nucleotide sequences revealed large IncF-type plasmids with globally distributed replicon sequence types F31:A4:B1 and F18:B1:C4 carrying diverse antibiotic resistance and virulence genes. The plasmids encoded extended-spectrum β-lactamases blaCTX-M-15 or blaCTX-M-55, each associated with the insertion sequence ISEc9, although in different local arrangements. Despite similar resistance profiles, the plasmids shared only one resistance gene in common, the aminoglycoside acetyltransferase aac(3)-IIe. Plasmid accessory cargo also included virulence factors involved in iron acquisition and defense against host immunity. Despite their sequence similarities, several large-scale recombination events were detected, including rearrangements and inversions. In conclusion, selection with a single antibiotic, cefotaxime, yielded conjugative plasmids conferring multiple resistance and virulence factors. Clearly, efforts to limit the spread of antibiotic resistance and virulence among bacteria must include a greater understanding of mobile elements in the natural and human-impacted environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan T Botts
- Department of Mathematics, Information, and Computer Sciences, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America
| | - Dawne M Page
- Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America
| | - Joseph A Bravo
- Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America
| | - Madelaine L Brown
- Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America
| | - Claudia C Castilleja
- Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America
| | - Victoria L Guzman
- Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America
| | - Samantha Hall
- Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America
| | - Jacob D Henderson
- Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America
| | - Shelby M Kenney
- Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America
| | - Mariele E Lensink
- Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America
| | - Megan V Paternoster
- Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America
| | - Sarah L Pyle
- Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America
| | - Lucas Ustick
- Department of Mathematics, Information, and Computer Sciences, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America; Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America
| | - Chara J Walters-Laird
- Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America
| | - Eva M Top
- Department of Biological Sciences, Institute for Interdisciplinary Data Sciences (IIDS), University of Idaho, 875 Perimeter Dr., Moscow, ID 83844, United States of America
| | - David E Cummings
- Department of Biology, Point Loma Nazarene University, 3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106, United States of America.
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7
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Long J, Zhang J, Xi Y, Zhao J, Jin Y, Yang H, Chen S, Duan G. Genomic Insights into CRISPR-Harboring Plasmids in the Klebsiella Genus: Distribution, Backbone Structures, Antibiotic Resistance, and Virulence Determinant Profiles. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2023; 67:e0118922. [PMID: 36790185 PMCID: PMC10019312 DOI: 10.1128/aac.01189-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/01/2022] [Accepted: 01/20/2023] [Indexed: 02/16/2023] Open
Abstract
CRISPR systems are often encoded by many prokaryotes as adaptive defense against mobile genetic elements (MGEs), but several MGEs also recruit CRISPR components to perform additional biological functions. Type IV-A systems are identified in Klebsiella plasmids, yet the distribution, characterization, and role of these plasmids carrying CRISPR systems in the whole Klebsiella genus remain unclear. Here, we performed large-scale comparative analysis of these plasmids using publicly available plasmid genomes. CRISPR-harboring plasmids were mainly distributed in Klebsiella pneumoniae (9.09%), covering 19.23% of sequence types, but sparse in Klebsiella species outside Klebsiella pneumoniae (3.92%). Plasmid genome comparison reiterated that these plasmids often carried the cointegrates of IncFIB and IncHI1B replicons, occasionally linked to other replicons, such as IncFIA, IncFII, IncR, IncQ, and IncU. Comparative genome analysis showed that CRISPR-carrying Klebsiella plasmids shared a conserved pNDM-MAR-like conjugation module as their backbones and served as an important vector for the accretion of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) and even virulence genes (VGs). Moreover, compared with CRISPR-negative IncFIB/IncHIB plasmids, CRISPR-positive IncFIB/IncHIB plasmids displayed high divergences in terms of ARGs, VGs, GC content, plasmid length, and backbone structures, suggesting their divergent evolutionary paths. The network analysis revealed that CRISPR-positive plasmids yielded fierce competitions with other plasmid types, especially conjugative plasmids, thereby affecting the dynamics of plasmid transmission. Overall, our study provides valuable insights into the role of CRISPR-positive plasmids in the spread of ARGs and VGs in Klebsiella genus.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jinzhao Long
- College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, People’s Republic of China
| | - Jiangfeng Zhang
- Department of Clinical Microbiology, People's Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, People’s Republic of China
| | - Yanyan Xi
- College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, People’s Republic of China
| | - Jiaxue Zhao
- College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, People’s Republic of China
| | - Yuefei Jin
- College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, People’s Republic of China
| | - Haiyan Yang
- College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, People’s Republic of China
| | - Shuaiyin Chen
- College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, People’s Republic of China
| | - Guangcai Duan
- College of Public Health, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, People’s Republic of China
- Henan Key Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan, People’s Republic of China
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8
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de la Fuente R, Díaz-Villanueva W, Arnau V, Moya A. Genomic Signature in Evolutionary Biology: A Review. BIOLOGY 2023; 12:biology12020322. [PMID: 36829597 PMCID: PMC9953303 DOI: 10.3390/biology12020322] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Revised: 02/11/2023] [Accepted: 02/13/2023] [Indexed: 02/19/2023]
Abstract
Organisms are unique physical entities in which information is stored and continuously processed. The digital nature of DNA sequences enables the construction of a dynamic information reservoir. However, the distinction between the hardware and software components in the information flow is crucial to identify the mechanisms generating specific genomic signatures. In this work, we perform a bibliometric analysis to identify the different purposes of looking for particular patterns in DNA sequences associated with a given phenotype. This study has enabled us to make a conceptual breakdown of the genomic signature and differentiate the leading applications. On the one hand, it refers to gene expression profiling associated with a biological function, which may be shared across taxa. This signature is the focus of study in precision medicine. On the other hand, it also refers to characteristic patterns in species-specific DNA sequences. This interpretation plays a key role in comparative genomics, identifying evolutionary relationships. Looking at the relevant studies in our bibliographic database, we highlight the main factors causing heterogeneities in genome composition and how they can be quantified. All these findings lead us to reformulate some questions relevant to evolutionary biology.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebeca de la Fuente
- Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2Sysbio), University of Valencia and Spanish Research Council (CSIC), 46980 Valencia, Spain
- Correspondence:
| | - Wladimiro Díaz-Villanueva
- Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2Sysbio), University of Valencia and Spanish Research Council (CSIC), 46980 Valencia, Spain
| | - Vicente Arnau
- Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2Sysbio), University of Valencia and Spanish Research Council (CSIC), 46980 Valencia, Spain
| | - Andrés Moya
- Institute of Integrative Systems Biology (I2Sysbio), University of Valencia and Spanish Research Council (CSIC), 46980 Valencia, Spain
- Foundation for the Promotion of Sanitary and Biomedical Research of the Valencian Community (FISABIO), 46020 Valencia, Spain
- CIBER in Epidemiology and Public Health (CIBEResp), 28029 Madrid, Spain
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9
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Lo HY, Martínez-Lavanchy PM, Goris T, Heider J, Boll M, Kaster AK, Müller JA. IncP-type plasmids carrying genes for antibiotic resistance or for aromatic compound degradation are prevalent in sequenced Aromatoleum and Thauera strains. Environ Microbiol 2022; 24:6411-6425. [PMID: 36306376 DOI: 10.1111/1462-2920.16262] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2022] [Accepted: 10/25/2022] [Indexed: 01/12/2023]
Abstract
Self-transferable plasmids of the incompatibility group P-1 (IncP-1) are considered important carriers of genes for antibiotic resistance and other adaptive functions. In the laboratory, these plasmids have a broad host range; however, little is known about their in situ host profile. In this study, we discovered that Thauera aromatica K172T , a facultative denitrifying microorganism capable of degrading various aromatic compounds, contains a plasmid highly similar to the IncP-1 ε archetype pKJK5. The plasmid harbours multiple antibiotic resistance genes and is maintained in strain K172T for at least 1000 generations without selection pressure from antibiotics. In a subsequent search, we found additional nine IncP-type plasmids in a total of 40 sequenced genomes of the closely related genera Aromatoleum and Thauera. Six of these plasmids form a novel IncP-1 subgroup designated θ, four of which carry genes for anaerobic or aerobic degradation of aromatic compounds. Pentanucleotide sequence analyses (k-mer profiling) indicated that Aromatoleum spp. and Thauera spp. are among the most suitable hosts for the θ plasmids. Our results highlight the importance of IncP-1 plasmids for the genetic adaptation of these common facultative denitrifying bacteria and provide novel insights into the in situ host profile of these plasmids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hao-Yu Lo
- Department of Environmental Biotechnology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany.,Institute for Biological Interfaces (IBG-5), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
| | - Paula M Martínez-Lavanchy
- Department of Environmental Biotechnology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Tobias Goris
- Department of Molecular Toxicology, Intestinal Microbiology, German Institute of Human Nutrition, Potsdam-Rehbruecke, Germany
| | - Johann Heider
- Department of Biology, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Germany
| | - Matthias Boll
- Institute of Biology II, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany
| | - Anne-Kristin Kaster
- Institute for Biological Interfaces (IBG-5), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
| | - Jochen A Müller
- Department of Environmental Biotechnology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Leipzig, Germany.,Institute for Biological Interfaces (IBG-5), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen, Germany
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10
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Ramamurthy T, Ghosh A, Chowdhury G, Mukhopadhyay AK, Dutta S, Miyoshi SI. Deciphering the genetic network and programmed regulation of antimicrobial resistance in bacterial pathogens. Front Cell Infect Microbiol 2022; 12:952491. [PMID: 36506027 PMCID: PMC9727169 DOI: 10.3389/fcimb.2022.952491] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/25/2022] [Accepted: 10/25/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in bacteria is an important global health problem affecting humans, animals, and the environment. AMR is considered as one of the major components in the "global one health". Misuse/overuse of antibiotics in any one of the segments can impact the integrity of the others. In the presence of antibiotic selective pressure, bacteria tend to develop several defense mechanisms, which include structural changes of the bacterial outer membrane, enzymatic processes, gene upregulation, mutations, adaptive resistance, and biofilm formation. Several components of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) play an important role in the dissemination of AMR. Each one of these components has a specific function that lasts long, irrespective of any antibiotic pressure. Integrative and conjugative elements (ICEs), insertion sequence elements (ISs), and transposons carry the antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) on different genetic backbones. Successful transfer of ARGs depends on the class of plasmids, regulons, ISs proximity, and type of recombination systems. Additionally, phage-bacterial networks play a major role in the transmission of ARGs, especially in bacteria from the environment and foods of animal origin. Several other functional attributes of bacteria also get successfully modified to acquire ARGs. These include efflux pumps, toxin-antitoxin systems, regulatory small RNAs, guanosine pentaphosphate signaling, quorum sensing, two-component system, and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR) systems. The metabolic and virulence state of bacteria is also associated with a range of genetic and phenotypic resistance mechanisms. In spite of the availability of a considerable information on AMR, the network associations between selection pressures and several of the components mentioned above are poorly understood. Understanding how a pathogen resists and regulates the ARGs in response to antimicrobials can help in controlling the development of resistance. Here, we provide an overview of the importance of genetic network and regulation of AMR in bacterial pathogens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thandavarayan Ramamurthy
- Division of Bacteriology, ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, India,*Correspondence: Thandavarayan Ramamurthy,
| | - Amit Ghosh
- Division of Bacteriology, ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, India
| | - Goutam Chowdhury
- Division of Bacteriology, ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, India
| | - Asish K. Mukhopadhyay
- Division of Bacteriology, ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, India
| | - Shanta Dutta
- Division of Bacteriology, ICMR-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, India
| | - Shin-inchi Miyoshi
- Collaborative Research Centre of Okayama University for Infectious Diseases at ICMR- National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkata, India,Graduate School of Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama University, Okayama, Japan
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11
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de Nies L, Busi SB, Kunath BJ, May P, Wilmes P. Mobilome-driven segregation of the resistome in biological wastewater treatment. eLife 2022; 11:81196. [PMID: 36111782 PMCID: PMC9643006 DOI: 10.7554/elife.81196] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/19/2022] [Accepted: 09/15/2022] [Indexed: 12/05/2022] Open
Abstract
Biological wastewater treatment plants (BWWTP) are considered to be hotspots for the evolution and subsequent spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Mobile genetic elements (MGEs) promote the mobilization and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) and are thereby critical mediators of AMR within the BWWTP microbial community. At present, it is unclear whether specific AMR categories are differentially disseminated via bacteriophages (phages) or plasmids. To understand the segregation of AMR in relation to MGEs, we analyzed meta-omic (metagenomic, metatranscriptomic and metaproteomic) data systematically collected over 1.5 years from a BWWTP. Our results showed a core group of 15 AMR categories which were found across all timepoints. Some of these AMR categories were disseminated exclusively (bacitracin) or primarily (aminoglycoside, MLS and sulfonamide) via plasmids or phages (fosfomycin and peptide), whereas others were disseminated equally by both. Combined and timepoint-specific analyses of gene, transcript and protein abundances further demonstrated that aminoglycoside, bacitracin and sulfonamide resistance genes were expressed more by plasmids, in contrast to fosfomycin and peptide AMR expression by phages, thereby validating our genomic findings. In the analyzed communities, the dominant taxon Candidatus Microthrix parvicella was a major contributor to several AMR categories whereby its plasmids primarily mediated aminoglycoside resistance. Importantly, we also found AMR associated with ESKAPEE pathogens within the BWWTP, and here MGEs also contributed differentially to the dissemination of the corresponding ARGs. Collectively our findings pave the way toward understanding the segmentation of AMR within MGEs, thereby shedding new light on resistome populations and their mediators, essential elements that are of immediate relevance to human health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laura de Nies
- Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, University of Luxembourg
| | | | | | - Patrick May
- Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, University of Luxembourg
| | - Paul Wilmes
- Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine, University of Luxembourg
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12
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Hitherto-Unnoticed Self-Transmissible Plasmids Widely Distributed among Different Environments in Japan. Appl Environ Microbiol 2022; 88:e0111422. [PMID: 36069618 PMCID: PMC9499019 DOI: 10.1128/aem.01114-22] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Various conjugative plasmids were obtained by exogenous plasmid capture, biparental mating, and/or triparental mating methods from different environmental samples in Japan. Based on phylogenetic analyses of their whole-nucleotide sequences, new IncP/P-1 plasmids that could be classified into novel subgroups were obtained. Mini-replicons of the plasmids were constructed, and each of them was incompatible with at least one of the IncP/P-1 plasmids, although they showed diverse iteron sequences in their oriV regions. There were two large clades of IncP/P-1 plasmids, clade I and II. Plasmids in clade I and II included antibiotic resistance genes. Notably, nucleotide compositions of newly found plasmids exhibited different tendencies compared with those of the previously well-studied IncP/P-1 plasmids. Indeed, the host range of plasmids of clade II was different from that of clade I. Although few PromA plasmids have been reported, the number of plasmids belonging to PromAβ, and -γ subgroups detected in this study was close to that of IncP/P-1 plasmids. The host ranges of PromAγ and PromAδ plasmids were broad and transferred to different and distinct classes of Proteobacteria. Interestingly, PromA plasmids and many IncP/P-1 plasmids do not carry any accessory genes. These findings indicate the presence of "hitherto-unnoticed" conjugative plasmids, including IncP/P-1 or PromA derivative ones in nature. These plasmids would have important roles in the exchange of various genes, including antibiotic resistance genes, among different bacteria in nature. IMPORTANCE Plasmids are known to spread among different bacteria. However, which plasmids spread among environmental samples and in which environments they are present is still poorly understood. This study showed that unidentified conjugative plasmids were present in various environments. Different novel IncP/P-1 plasmids were found, whose host ranges were different from those of known plasmids, showing wide diversity of IncP/P-1 plasmids. PromA plasmids, exhibiting a broad host range, were diversified into several subgroups and widely distributed in varied environments. These findings are important for understanding how bacteria naturally exchange their genes, including antibiotic resistance genes, a growing threat to human health worldwide.
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13
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Pinilla-Redondo R, Russel J, Mayo-Muñoz D, Shah SA, Garrett RA, Nesme J, Madsen JS, Fineran PC, Sørensen SJ. CRISPR-Cas systems are widespread accessory elements across bacterial and archaeal plasmids. Nucleic Acids Res 2022; 50:4315-4328. [PMID: 34606604 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkab859/40506127/gkab859.pdf] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2021] [Revised: 09/08/2021] [Accepted: 10/02/2021] [Indexed: 05/27/2023] Open
Abstract
Many prokaryotes encode CRISPR-Cas systems as immune protection against mobile genetic elements (MGEs), yet a number of MGEs also harbor CRISPR-Cas components. With a few exceptions, CRISPR-Cas loci encoded on MGEs are uncharted and a comprehensive analysis of their distribution, prevalence, diversity, and function is lacking. Here, we systematically investigated CRISPR-Cas loci across the largest curated collection of natural bacterial and archaeal plasmids. CRISPR-Cas loci are widely but heterogeneously distributed across plasmids and, in comparison to host chromosomes, their mean prevalence per Mbp is higher and their distribution is distinct. Furthermore, the spacer content of plasmid CRISPRs exhibits a strong targeting bias towards other plasmids, while chromosomal arrays are enriched with virus-targeting spacers. These contrasting targeting preferences highlight the genetic independence of plasmids and suggest a major role for mediating plasmid-plasmid conflicts. Altogether, CRISPR-Cas are frequent accessory components of many plasmids, which is an overlooked phenomenon that possibly facilitates their dissemination across microbiomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rafael Pinilla-Redondo
- Section of Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Technological Educations, University College Copenhagen, Sigurdsgade 26, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Jakob Russel
- Section of Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - David Mayo-Muñoz
- Section of Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Shiraz A Shah
- Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood (COPSAC), Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Ledreborg Alle 34, 2820 Gentofte, Denmark
| | - Roger A Garrett
- Danish Archaea Centre, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen, Ole Maaløes Vej 5, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Joseph Nesme
- Section of Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Jonas S Madsen
- Section of Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Peter C Fineran
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
- Bio-Protection Research Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Søren J Sørensen
- Section of Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
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14
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Aytan-Aktug D, Clausen PTLC, Szarvas J, Munk P, Otani S, Nguyen M, Davis JJ, Lund O, Aarestrup FM. PlasmidHostFinder: Prediction of Plasmid Hosts Using Random Forest. mSystems 2022; 7:e0118021. [PMID: 35382558 PMCID: PMC9040769 DOI: 10.1128/msystems.01180-21] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2021] [Accepted: 03/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Plasmids play a major role facilitating the spread of antimicrobial resistance between bacteria. Understanding the host range and dissemination trajectories of plasmids is critical for surveillance and prevention of antimicrobial resistance. Identification of plasmid host ranges could be improved using automated pattern detection methods compared to homology-based methods due to the diversity and genetic plasticity of plasmids. In this study, we developed a method for predicting the host range of plasmids using machine learning-specifically, random forests. We trained the models with 8,519 plasmids from 359 different bacterial species per taxonomic level; the models achieved Matthews correlation coefficients of 0.662 and 0.867 at the species and order levels, respectively. Our results suggest that despite the diverse nature and genetic plasticity of plasmids, our random forest model can accurately distinguish between plasmid hosts. This tool is available online through the Center for Genomic Epidemiology (https://cge.cbs.dtu.dk/services/PlasmidHostFinder/). IMPORTANCE Antimicrobial resistance is a global health threat to humans and animals, causing high mortality and morbidity while effectively ending decades of success in fighting against bacterial infections. Plasmids confer extra genetic capabilities to the host organisms through accessory genes that can encode antimicrobial resistance and virulence. In addition to lateral inheritance, plasmids can be transferred horizontally between bacterial taxa. Therefore, detection of the host range of plasmids is crucial for understanding and predicting the dissemination trajectories of extrachromosomal genes and bacterial evolution as well as taking effective countermeasures against antimicrobial resistance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Derya Aytan-Aktug
- National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | | | - Judit Szarvas
- National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Patrick Munk
- National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Saria Otani
- National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Marcus Nguyen
- Consortium for Advanced Science and Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Data Science and Learning Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois, USA
| | - James J. Davis
- Consortium for Advanced Science and Engineering, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
- Data Science and Learning Division, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois, USA
- Northwestern Argonne Institute for Science and Engineering, Evanston, Illinois, USA
| | - Ole Lund
- National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
| | - Frank M. Aarestrup
- National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark
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15
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Tan R, Jin M, Shao Y, Yin J, Li H, Chen T, Shi D, Zhou S, Li J, Yang D. High-sugar, high-fat, and high-protein diets promote antibiotic resistance gene spreading in the mouse intestinal microbiota. Gut Microbes 2022; 14:2022442. [PMID: 35030982 PMCID: PMC8765071 DOI: 10.1080/19490976.2021.2022442] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2023] Open
Abstract
Diet can not only provide nutrition for intestinal microbiota, it can also remodel them. However, is unclear whether and how diet affects the spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the intestinal microbiota. Therefore, we employed selected high-sugar, high-fat, high-protein, and normal diets to explore the effect. The results showed that high-sugar, high-fat, and high-protein diets promoted the amplification and transfer of exogenous ARGs among intestinal microbiota, and up-regulated the expression of trfAp and trbBp while significantly altered the intestinal microbiota and its metabolites. Inflammation-related products were strongly correlated with the spread of ARGs, suggesting the intestinal microenvironment after diet remodeling might be conducive to the spreading of ARGs. This may be attributed to changes in bacterial membrane permeability, the SOS response, and bacterial composition and diversity caused by diet-induced inflammation. In addition, acceptor bacteria (zygotes) screened by flow cytometry were mostly Proteobacteria, Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, and most were derived from dominant intestinal bacteria remodeled by diet, indicating that the transfer of ARGs was closely linked to diet, and had some selectivity. Metagenomic results showed that the gut resistance genome could be affected not only by diet, but by exogenous antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB). Many ARG markers coincided with bacterial markers in diet groups. Therefore, dominant bacteria in different diets are important hosts of ARGs in specific dietary environments, but the many pathogenic bacteria present may cause serious harm to human health.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rong Tan
- Department of Environment and Health, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control for Environment & Food Safety, Tianjin, P. R. China,Dong Yang Department of Environment and Health, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control for Environment & Food Safety, Tianjin300050, China
| | - Min Jin
- Department of Environment and Health, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control for Environment & Food Safety, Tianjin, P. R. China,Dong Yang Department of Environment and Health, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control for Environment & Food Safety, Tianjin300050, China
| | - Yifan Shao
- Department of Environment and Health, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control for Environment & Food Safety, Tianjin, P. R. China
| | - Jing Yin
- Department of Environment and Health, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control for Environment & Food Safety, Tianjin, P. R. China
| | - Haibei Li
- Department of Environment and Health, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control for Environment & Food Safety, Tianjin, P. R. China
| | - Tianjiao Chen
- Department of Environment and Health, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control for Environment & Food Safety, Tianjin, P. R. China
| | - Danyang Shi
- Department of Environment and Health, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control for Environment & Food Safety, Tianjin, P. R. China
| | - Shuqing Zhou
- Department of Environment and Health, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control for Environment & Food Safety, Tianjin, P. R. China
| | - Junwen Li
- Department of Environment and Health, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control for Environment & Food Safety, Tianjin, P. R. China,CONTACT Junwen Li Department of Environment and Health, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control for Environment & Food Safety, Tianjin300050, China
| | - Dong Yang
- Department of Environment and Health, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control for Environment & Food Safety, Tianjin, P. R. China,Dong Yang Department of Environment and Health, Tianjin Institute of Environmental and Operational Medicine, Key Laboratory of Risk Assessment and Control for Environment & Food Safety, Tianjin300050, China
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16
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Abstract
Horizontal transfer of bacterial plasmids generates genetic variability and contributes to the dissemination of the genes that enable bacterial cells to develop antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Several aspects of the conjugative process have long been known, namely, those related to the proteins that participate in the establishment of cell-to-cell contact and to the enzymatic processes associated with the processing of plasmid DNA and its transfer to the recipient cell. In this work, we describe the roles of newly identified proteins that influence the conjugation of several plasmids. Genes encoding high-molecular-weight bacterial proteins that contain one or several immunoglobulin-like domains (Big) are located in the transfer regions of several plasmids that usually harbor AMR determinants. These Big proteins are exported to the external medium and target two extracellular organelles: the flagella and conjugative pili. The plasmid gene-encoded Big proteins facilitate conjugation by reducing cell motility and facilitating cell-to-cell contact by binding both to the flagella and to the conjugative pilus. They use the same export machinery as that used by the conjugative pilus components. In the examples characterized in this paper, these proteins influence conjugation at environmental temperatures (i.e., 25°C). This suggests that they may play relevant roles in the dissemination of plasmids in natural environments. Taking into account that they interact with outer surface organelles, they could be targeted to control the dissemination of different bacterial plasmids carrying AMR determinants. IMPORTANCE Transmission of a plasmid from one bacterial cell to another, in several instances, underlies the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) genes. The process requires well-characterized enzymatic machinery that facilitates cell-to-cell contact and the transfer of the plasmid. Our paper identifies novel plasmid gene-encoded high-molecular-weight proteins that contain an immunoglobulin-like domain and are required for plasmid transmission. They are encoded by genes on different groups of plasmids. These proteins are exported outside the cell. They bind to extracellular cell appendages such as the flagella and conjugative pili. Expression of these proteins reduces cell motility and increases the ability of the bacterial cells to transfer the plasmid. These proteins could be targeted with specific antibodies to combat infections caused by AMR microorganisms that harbor these plasmids.
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17
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Zhao G, Wu Y, Wang X, Chen M, Li L. The impact of pollutant as selection pressure on conjugative transfer of dioxin-catabolic plasmids harbored by Rhodococcus sp. strain p52. ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE AND POLLUTION RESEARCH INTERNATIONAL 2022; 29:1470-1481. [PMID: 34355316 DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-15682-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2021] [Accepted: 07/23/2021] [Indexed: 06/13/2023]
Abstract
Plasmid-mediated bioaugmentation has potential application in the cleanup of recalcitrant environmental pollutants. In this study, we examined the influence of various contaminants (in different categories or different amounts) as a selection pressure on the spread of catabolic plasmids within an activated sludge bacteria community bioaugmented with Rhodococcus sp. strain p52 harboring pDF01 and pDF02. The distinguishable genera of transconjugants were isolated under the stresses of phenanthrene, dibenzothiophene, and dibenzo-p-dioxin. The three contaminants exerted different degrees of influence on the activated sludge bacteria bearing the catabolic plasmids. The relatively high ratios of transconjugant-bearing catabolic plasmids were detected in the reactor fed with dibenzo-p-dioxin. As dibenzo-p-dioxin from 10 to 80 mg/L was fed into the reactors, the ratios of transconjugant-bearing catabolic plasmids increased. Additionally, levels of ROS and extracellular LDH of activated sludge bacteria in the contaminants-fed reactors increased, comparing with that in the control reactor, indicating that the contaminants exerted toxicity which promoted the cell membrane permeability of the activated sludge bacteria. Our study provides a characterization of the recalcitrant contaminants as a selection pressure that can modulate catabolic plasmid transfer during genetic bioaugmentation for the removal of contaminants.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gang Zhao
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao, 72 Binhai Road, Jimo, 266237, China
| | - Yanan Wu
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao, 72 Binhai Road, Jimo, 266237, China
| | - Xu Wang
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao, 72 Binhai Road, Jimo, 266237, China
| | - Meng Chen
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao, 72 Binhai Road, Jimo, 266237, China
| | - Li Li
- Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao, 72 Binhai Road, Jimo, 266237, China.
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18
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Genomic epidemiology of rifampicin ADP-ribosyltransferase (Arr) in the Bacteria domain. Sci Rep 2021; 11:19775. [PMID: 34611248 PMCID: PMC8492726 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-99255-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2021] [Accepted: 09/22/2021] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Arr is an ADP-ribosyltransferase enzyme primarily reported in association with rifamycin resistance, which has been used to treat tuberculosis in addition to Gram-positive infections and, recently, pan-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. The arr gene was initially identified on the Mycolicibacterium smegmatis chromosome and later on Proteobacteria plasmids. This scenario raised concerns on the distribution and spread of arr, considering the Bacteria domain. Based on 198,082 bacterial genomes/metagenomes, we performed in silico analysis, including phylogenetic reconstruction of Arr in different genomic contexts. Besides, new arr alleles were evaluated by in vitro analysis to assess their association with rifampin resistance phenotype. The arr gene was prevalent in thousands of chromosomes and in hundreds of plasmids from environmental and clinical bacteria, mainly from the phyla Actinobacteria, Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Bacteroidetes. Furthermore, this gene was identified in other and new genomic contexts. Interestingly, Arr sequences associated with rifampin resistance were distributed across all phylogeny, indicating that, despite the diversity, their association with rifampin resistance phenotype were maintained. In fact, we found that the key residues were highly conserved. In addition, other analyzes have raised evidence of another Arr function, which is related to guanidine metabolism. Finally, this scenario as a whole also suggested the Actinobacteria phylum as a potential ancestral source of arr within the Bacteria domain.
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19
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Pinilla-Redondo R, Russel J, Mayo-Muñoz D, Shah SA, Garrett RA, Nesme J, Madsen JS, Fineran PC, Sørensen SJ. CRISPR-Cas systems are widespread accessory elements across bacterial and archaeal plasmids. Nucleic Acids Res 2021; 50:4315-4328. [PMID: 34606604 PMCID: PMC9071438 DOI: 10.1093/nar/gkab859] [Citation(s) in RCA: 34] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/31/2021] [Revised: 09/08/2021] [Accepted: 10/02/2021] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Many prokaryotes encode CRISPR-Cas systems as immune protection against mobile genetic elements (MGEs), yet a number of MGEs also harbor CRISPR-Cas components. With a few exceptions, CRISPR-Cas loci encoded on MGEs are uncharted and a comprehensive analysis of their distribution, prevalence, diversity, and function is lacking. Here, we systematically investigated CRISPR-Cas loci across the largest curated collection of natural bacterial and archaeal plasmids. CRISPR-Cas loci are widely but heterogeneously distributed across plasmids and, in comparison to host chromosomes, their mean prevalence per Mbp is higher and their distribution is distinct. Furthermore, the spacer content of plasmid CRISPRs exhibits a strong targeting bias towards other plasmids, while chromosomal arrays are enriched with virus-targeting spacers. These contrasting targeting preferences highlight the genetic independence of plasmids and suggest a major role for mediating plasmid-plasmid conflicts. Altogether, CRISPR-Cas are frequent accessory components of many plasmids, which is an overlooked phenomenon that possibly facilitates their dissemination across microbiomes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rafael Pinilla-Redondo
- Section of Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.,Department of Technological Educations, University College Copenhagen, Sigurdsgade 26, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Jakob Russel
- Section of Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - David Mayo-Muñoz
- Section of Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark.,Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Shiraz A Shah
- Copenhagen Prospective Studies on Asthma in Childhood (COPSAC), Herlev and Gentofte Hospital, University of Copenhagen, Ledreborg Alle 34, 2820 Gentofte, Denmark
| | - Roger A Garrett
- Danish Archaea Centre, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, University of Copenhagen, Ole Maaløes Vej 5, 2200 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Joseph Nesme
- Section of Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Jonas S Madsen
- Section of Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
| | - Peter C Fineran
- Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.,Bio-Protection Research Centre, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
| | - Søren J Sørensen
- Section of Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, 2100 Copenhagen, Denmark
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20
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Wu S, Fang Z, Tan J, Li M, Wang C, Guo Q, Xu C, Jiang X, Zhu H. DeePhage: distinguishing virulent and temperate phage-derived sequences in metavirome data with a deep learning approach. Gigascience 2021; 10:giab056. [PMID: 34498685 PMCID: PMC8427542 DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giab056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Prokaryotic viruses referred to as phages can be divided into virulent and temperate phages. Distinguishing virulent and temperate phage-derived sequences in metavirome data is important for elucidating their different roles in interactions with bacterial hosts and regulation of microbial communities. However, there is no experimental or computational approach to effectively classify their sequences in culture-independent metavirome. We present a new computational method, DeePhage, which can directly and rapidly judge each read or contig as a virulent or temperate phage-derived fragment. FINDINGS DeePhage uses a "one-hot" encoding form to represent DNA sequences in detail. Sequence signatures are detected via a convolutional neural network to obtain valuable local features. The accuracy of DeePhage on 5-fold cross-validation reaches as high as 89%, nearly 10% and 30% higher than that of 2 similar tools, PhagePred and PHACTS. On real metavirome, DeePhage correctly predicts the highest proportion of contigs when using BLAST as annotation, without apparent preferences. Besides, DeePhage reduces running time vs PhagePred and PHACTS by 245 and 810 times, respectively, under the same computational configuration. By direct detection of the temperate viral fragments from metagenome and metavirome, we furthermore propose a new strategy to explore phage transformations in the microbial community. The ability to detect such transformations provides us a new insight into the potential treatment for human disease. CONCLUSIONS DeePhage is a novel tool developed to rapidly and efficiently identify 2 kinds of phage fragments especially for metagenomics analysis. DeePhage is freely available via http://cqb.pku.edu.cn/ZhuLab/DeePhage or https://github.com/shufangwu/DeePhage.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shufang Wu
- State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems and Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
| | - Zhencheng Fang
- State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems and Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
| | - Jie Tan
- State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems and Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
| | - Mo Li
- Peking University-Tsinghua University - National Institute of Biological Sciences (PTN) joint PhD program, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
| | - Chunhui Wang
- Peking University-Tsinghua University - National Institute of Biological Sciences (PTN) joint PhD program, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
| | - Qian Guo
- State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems and Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University,
GA 30332, Atlanta, USA
| | - Congmin Xu
- State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems and Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University,
GA 30332, Atlanta, USA
| | - Xiaoqing Jiang
- State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems and Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
| | - Huaiqiu Zhu
- State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems and Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, Beijing, China
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University,
GA 30332, Atlanta, USA
- Institute of Medical Technology, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing 100191, Beijing, China
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21
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Robertson J, Bessonov K, Schonfeld J, Nash JHE. Universal whole-sequence-based plasmid typing and its utility to prediction of host range and epidemiological surveillance. Microb Genom 2021; 6. [PMID: 32969786 PMCID: PMC7660255 DOI: 10.1099/mgen.0.000435] [Citation(s) in RCA: 51] [Impact Index Per Article: 17.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Bacterial plasmids play a large role in allowing bacteria to adapt to changing environments and can pose a significant risk to human health if they confer virulence and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Plasmids differ significantly in the taxonomic breadth of host bacteria in which they can successfully replicate, this is commonly referred to as 'host range' and is usually described in qualitative terms of 'narrow' or 'broad'. Understanding the host range potential of plasmids is of great interest due to their ability to disseminate traits such as AMR through bacterial populations and into human pathogens. We developed the MOB-suite to facilitate characterization of plasmids and introduced a whole-sequence-based classification system based on clustering complete plasmid sequences using Mash distances (https://github.com/phac-nml/mob-suite). We updated the MOB-suite database from 12 091 to 23 671 complete sequences, representing 17 779 unique plasmids. With advances in new algorithms for rapidly calculating average nucleotide identity (ANI), we compared clustering characteristics using two different distance measures - Mash and ANI - and three clustering algorithms on the unique set of plasmids. The plasmid nomenclature is designed to group highly similar plasmids together that are unlikely to have multiple representatives within a single cell. Based on our results, we determined that clusters generated using Mash and complete-linkage clustering at a Mash distance of 0.06 resulted in highly homogeneous clusters while maintaining cluster size. The taxonomic distribution of plasmid biomarker sequences for replication and relaxase typing, in combination with MOB-suite whole-sequence-based clusters have been examined in detail for all high-quality publicly available plasmid sequences. We have incorporated prediction of plasmid replication host range into the MOB-suite based on observed distributions of these sequence features in combination with known plasmid hosts from the literature. Host range is reported as the highest taxonomic rank that covers all of the plasmids which share replicon or relaxase biomarkers or belong to the same MOB-suite cluster code. Reporting host range based on these criteria allows for comparisons of host range between studies and provides information for plasmid surveillance.
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Affiliation(s)
- James Robertson
- National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Kyrylo Bessonov
- National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - Justin Schonfeld
- National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Guelph, ON, Canada
| | - John H E Nash
- National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Guelph, ON, Canada
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22
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Moura de Sousa JA, Pfeifer E, Touchon M, Rocha EPC. Causes and Consequences of Bacteriophage Diversification via Genetic Exchanges across Lifestyles and Bacterial Taxa. Mol Biol Evol 2021; 38:2497-2512. [PMID: 33570565 PMCID: PMC8136500 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msab044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 33] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Bacteriophages (phages) evolve rapidly by acquiring genes from other phages. This results in mosaic genomes. Here, we identify numerous genetic transfers between distantly related phages and aim at understanding their frequency, consequences, and the conditions favoring them. Gene flow tends to occur between phages that are enriched for recombinases, transposases, and nonhomologous end joining, suggesting that both homologous and illegitimate recombination contribute to gene flow. Phage family and host phyla are strong barriers to gene exchange, but phage lifestyle is not. Even if we observe four times more recent transfers between temperate phages than between other pairs, there is extensive gene flow between temperate and virulent phages, and between the latter. These predominantly involve virulent phages with large genomes previously classed as low gene flux, and lead to the preferential transfer of genes encoding functions involved in cell energetics, nucleotide metabolism, DNA packaging and injection, and virion assembly. Such exchanges may contribute to the observed twice larger genomes of virulent phages. We used genetic transfers, which occur upon coinfection of a host, to compare phage host range. We found that virulent phages have broader host ranges and can mediate genetic exchanges between narrow host range temperate phages infecting distant bacterial hosts, thus contributing to gene flow between virulent phages, as well as between temperate phages. This gene flow drastically expands the gene repertoires available for phage and bacterial evolution, including the transfer of functional innovations across taxa.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Eugen Pfeifer
- Microbial Evolutionary Genomics, Institut Pasteur, CNRS, UMR3525, Paris, France
| | - Marie Touchon
- Microbial Evolutionary Genomics, Institut Pasteur, CNRS, UMR3525, Paris, France
| | - Eduardo P C Rocha
- Microbial Evolutionary Genomics, Institut Pasteur, CNRS, UMR3525, Paris, France
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23
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Pradier L, Tissot T, Fiston-Lavier AS, Bedhomme S. PlasForest: a homology-based random forest classifier for plasmid detection in genomic datasets. BMC Bioinformatics 2021; 22:349. [PMID: 34174810 PMCID: PMC8236179 DOI: 10.1186/s12859-021-04270-w] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2020] [Accepted: 06/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
Background Plasmids are mobile genetic elements that often carry accessory genes, and are vectors for horizontal transfer between bacterial genomes. Plasmid detection in large genomic datasets is crucial to analyze their spread and quantify their role in bacteria adaptation and particularly in antibiotic resistance propagation. Bioinformatics methods have been developed to detect plasmids. However, they suffer from low sensitivity (i.e., most plasmids remain undetected) or low precision (i.e., these methods identify chromosomes as plasmids), and are overall not adapted to identify plasmids in whole genomes that are not fully assembled (contigs and scaffolds). Results We developed PlasForest, a homology-based random forest classifier identifying bacterial plasmid sequences in partially assembled genomes. Without knowing the taxonomical origin of the samples, PlasForest identifies contigs as plasmids or chromosomes with a F1 score of 0.950. Notably, it can detect 77.4% of plasmid contigs below 1 kb with 2.8% of false positives and 99.9% of plasmid contigs over 50 kb with 2.2% of false positives. Conclusions PlasForest outperforms other currently available tools on genomic datasets by being both sensitive and precise. The performance of PlasForest on metagenomic assemblies are currently well below those of other k-mer-based methods, and we discuss how homology-based approaches could improve plasmid detection in such datasets. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12859-021-04270-w.
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Affiliation(s)
- Léa Pradier
- Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Institut de Recherche Pour le Développement, 34000, Montpellier, France.
| | - Tazzio Tissot
- Genomics, Bioinformatics and Evolution. Departament de Genètica i Microbiologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain.,Centre de Recerca Matemàtica, 08193, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain
| | - Anna-Sophie Fiston-Lavier
- Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier (ISE-M), Equipe Evolution, Vecteurs, Adaptation et Symbiose, UMR 5554, CNRS-Université Montpellier, 34090, Montpellier Cedex 05, France
| | - Stéphanie Bedhomme
- Centre d'Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, CNRS, Université de Montpellier, Université Paul Valéry Montpellier 3, Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Institut de Recherche Pour le Développement, 34000, Montpellier, France.
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24
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Zoolkefli FIRM, Moriguchi K, Cho Y, Kiyokawa K, Yamamoto S, Suzuki K. Isolation and Analysis of Donor Chromosomal Genes Whose Deficiency Is Responsible for Accelerating Bacterial and Trans-Kingdom Conjugations by IncP1 T4SS Machinery. Front Microbiol 2021; 12:620535. [PMID: 34093458 PMCID: PMC8174662 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.620535] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/23/2020] [Accepted: 04/06/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Conjugal transfer is a major driving force of genetic exchange in eubacteria, and the system in IncP1-type broad-host-range plasmids transfers DNA even to eukaryotes and archaea in a process known as trans-kingdom conjugation (TKC). Although conjugation factors encoded on plasmids have been extensively analyzed, those on the donor chromosome have not. To identify the potential conjugation factor(s), a genome-wide survey on a comprehensive collection of Escherichia coli gene knockout mutants (Keio collection) as donors to Saccharomyces cerevisiae recipients was performed using a conjugal transfer system mediated by the type IV secretion system (T4SS) of the IncP1α plasmid. Out of 3,884 mutants, three mutants (ΔfrmR, ΔsufA, and ΔiscA) were isolated, which showed an increase by one order of magnitude in both E. coli-E. coli and E. coli-yeast conjugations without an increase in the mRNA accumulation level for the conjugation related genes examined. The double-knockout mutants for these genes (ΔfrmRΔsufA and ΔiscAΔfrmR) did not show synergistic effects on the conjugation efficiency, suggesting that these factors affect a common step in the conjugation machinery. The three mutants demonstrated increased conjugation efficiency in IncP1β-type but not in IncN- and IncW-type broad-host-range plasmid transfers, and the homologous gene knockout mutants against the three genes in Agrobacterium tumefaciens also showed increased TKC efficiency. These results suggest the existence of a specific regulatory system in IncP1 plasmids that enables the control of conjugation efficiency in different hosts, which could be utilized for the development of donor strains as gene introduction tools into bacteria, eukaryotes, and archaea.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Kazuki Moriguchi
- Department of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan.,Program of Basic Biology, Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan
| | - Yunjae Cho
- Department of Biological Science, Faculty of Science, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan
| | - Kazuya Kiyokawa
- Program of Basic Biology, Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan
| | - Shinji Yamamoto
- Department of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan
| | - Katsunori Suzuki
- Department of Biological Science, Graduate School of Science, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan.,Program of Basic Biology, Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Life, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima, Japan
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25
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Loftie-Eaton W, Crabtree A, Perry D, Millstein J, Baytosh J, Stalder T, Robison BD, Forney LJ, Top EM. Contagious Antibiotic Resistance: Plasmid Transfer among Bacterial Residents of the Zebrafish Gut. Appl Environ Microbiol 2021; 87:e02735-20. [PMID: 33637574 PMCID: PMC8091013 DOI: 10.1128/aem.02735-20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/06/2020] [Accepted: 02/20/2021] [Indexed: 01/12/2023] Open
Abstract
By characterizing the trajectories of antibiotic resistance gene transfer in bacterial communities such as the gut microbiome, we will better understand the factors that influence this spread of resistance. Our aim was to investigate the host network of a multidrug resistance broad-host-range plasmid in the culturable gut microbiome of zebrafish. This was done through in vitro and in vivo conjugation experiments with Escherichia coli as the donor of the plasmid pB10::gfp When this donor was mixed with the extracted gut microbiome, only transconjugants of Aeromonas veronii were detected. In separate matings between the same donor and four prominent isolates from the gut microbiome, the plasmid transferred to two of these four isolates, A. veronii and Plesiomonas shigelloides, but not to Shewanella putrefaciens and Vibrio mimicus When these A. veronii and P. shigelloides transconjugants were the donors in matings with the same four isolates, the plasmid now also transferred from A. veronii to S. putrefaciensP. shigelloides was unable to donate the plasmid, and V. mimicus was unable to acquire it. Finally, when the E. coli donor was added in vivo to zebrafish through their food, plasmid transfer was observed in the gut, but only to Achromobacter, a rare member of the gut microbiome. This work shows that the success of plasmid-mediated antibiotic resistance spread in a gut microbiome depends on the donor-recipient species combinations and therefore their spatial arrangement. It also suggests that rare gut microbiome members should not be ignored as potential reservoirs of multidrug resistance plasmids from food.IMPORTANCE To understand how antibiotic resistance plasmids end up in human pathogens, it is crucial to learn how, where, and when they are transferred and maintained in members of bacterial communities such as the gut microbiome. To gain insight into the network of plasmid-mediated antibiotic resistance sharing in the gut microbiome, we investigated the transferability and maintenance of a multidrug resistance plasmid among the culturable bacteria of the zebrafish gut. We show that the success of plasmid-mediated antibiotic resistance spread in a gut microbiome can depend on which species are involved, as some are important nodes in the plasmid-host network and others are dead ends. Our findings also suggest that rare gut microbiome members should not be ignored as potential reservoirs of multidrug resistance plasmids from food.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wesley Loftie-Eaton
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
- Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies (IBEST), University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
| | - Angela Crabtree
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
| | - David Perry
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
| | - Jack Millstein
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
- Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies (IBEST), University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
| | - Justin Baytosh
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
| | - Thibault Stalder
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
- Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies (IBEST), University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
| | - Barrie D Robison
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
- Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies (IBEST), University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
| | - Larry J Forney
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
- Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies (IBEST), University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
| | - Eva M Top
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
- Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies (IBEST), University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
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26
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Zhang T, Lin Y, Li P, Li Z, Liu X, Li J, Li L, Wang K, Liu Z, Li P, Lu L, Wang H. Characterization of Plasmid Co-Harboring NDM-1 and SHV-12 from a Multidrug-Resistant Citrobacter freundii Strain ZT01-0079 in China. Infect Drug Resist 2021; 14:947-952. [PMID: 33727835 PMCID: PMC7955740 DOI: 10.2147/idr.s301736] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/12/2021] [Accepted: 02/23/2021] [Indexed: 01/24/2023] Open
Abstract
Background The emergence of multidrug-resistant Citrobacter freundii poses daunting challenges to the treatment of clinical infections. The purpose of this study was to characterize the genome of a C. freundii strain with an IncX3 plasmid encoding both the blaNDM-1 and blaSHV-12 genes. Methods Strain ZT01-0079 was isolated from a clinical urine sample. The Vitek2 system was used for identification and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. The presence of blaNDM-1 was detected by PCR and sequencing. Conjugation experiments and Southern blotting were performed to determine the transferability of the blaNDM-1- carrying plasmid. Nanopore and Illumina sequencing were performed to better understand the genomic characteristics of the strain. Results Strain ZT01-0079 was identified as C. freundii, and the coexistence of blaNDM-1 and multiple drug resistance genes was confirmed. Electrophoresis and Southern blotting showed that blaNDM-1 was located on a ~53kb IncX3 plasmid. The NDM-1-encoding plasmid was successfully transferred at a frequency of 1.68×10−3. Both the blaNDM-1 and blaSHV-12 genes were located on the self-transferable IncX3 plasmid. Conclusion The rapid spread of the IncX3 plasmid highlights the importance of continuous monitoring of the prevalence of NDM-1-encoding Enterobacteriaceae. Mutations of existing carbapenem resistance genes will bring formidable challenges to clinical treatment.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tingyan Zhang
- School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, People's Republic of China.,Chinese PLA Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Yanfeng Lin
- Chinese PLA Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Peihan Li
- Chinese PLA Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhonghong Li
- Chinese PLA Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Xiong Liu
- Chinese PLA Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Jinhui Li
- Chinese PLA Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Lizhong Li
- Chinese PLA Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Kaiying Wang
- Chinese PLA Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China.,Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Zhongdong Liu
- School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, People's Republic of China
| | - Peng Li
- Chinese PLA Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, People's Republic of China
| | - Lanfen Lu
- Department of Laboratory Diagnosis, Sun Yat-Sen University Affiliated Zhongshan Hospital, Zhongshan, Guangdong, People's Republic of China
| | - Hongyan Wang
- School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, People's Republic of China
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27
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Köstlbacher S, Collingro A, Halter T, Domman D, Horn M. Coevolving Plasmids Drive Gene Flow and Genome Plasticity in Host-Associated Intracellular Bacteria. Curr Biol 2021; 31:346-357.e3. [PMID: 33157023 PMCID: PMC7846284 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.10.030] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/21/2020] [Revised: 09/30/2020] [Accepted: 10/09/2020] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Abstract
Plasmids are important in microbial evolution and adaptation to new environments. Yet, carrying a plasmid can be costly, and long-term association of plasmids with their hosts is poorly understood. Here, we provide evidence that the Chlamydiae, a phylum of strictly host-associated intracellular bacteria, have coevolved with their plasmids since their last common ancestor. Current chlamydial plasmids are amalgamations of at least one ancestral plasmid and a bacteriophage. We show that the majority of plasmid genes are also found on chromosomes of extant chlamydiae. The most conserved plasmid gene families are predominantly vertically inherited, while accessory plasmid gene families show significantly increased mobility. We reconstructed the evolutionary history of plasmid gene content of an entire bacterial phylum over a period of around one billion years. Frequent horizontal gene transfer and chromosomal integration events illustrate the pronounced impact of coevolution with these extrachromosomal elements on bacterial genome dynamics in host-dependent microbes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stephan Köstlbacher
- University of Vienna, Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, Division of Microbial Ecology, Althanstrasse 14, Vienna 1090, Austria
| | - Astrid Collingro
- University of Vienna, Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, Division of Microbial Ecology, Althanstrasse 14, Vienna 1090, Austria
| | - Tamara Halter
- University of Vienna, Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, Division of Microbial Ecology, Althanstrasse 14, Vienna 1090, Austria
| | - Daryl Domman
- Wellcome Sanger Institute, Parasites and Microbes Programme, Hinxton, Cambridge CB10 1SA, UK; Center for Global Health, Department of Internal Medicine, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA
| | - Matthias Horn
- University of Vienna, Centre for Microbiology and Environmental Systems Science, Division of Microbial Ecology, Althanstrasse 14, Vienna 1090, Austria.
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28
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Kim JW, Bugata V, Cortés-Cortés G, Quevedo-Martínez G, Camps M. Mechanisms of Theta Plasmid Replication in Enterobacteria and Implications for Adaptation to Its Host. EcoSal Plus 2020; 9:10.1128/ecosalplus.ESP-0026-2019. [PMID: 33210586 PMCID: PMC7724965 DOI: 10.1128/ecosalplus.esp-0026-2019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/26/2020] [Indexed: 11/20/2022]
Abstract
Plasmids are autonomously replicating sequences that help cells adapt to diverse stresses. Theta plasmids are the most frequent plasmid class in enterobacteria. They co-opt two host replication mechanisms: replication at oriC, a DnaA-dependent pathway leading to replisome assembly (theta class A), and replication fork restart, a PriA-dependent pathway leading to primosome assembly through primer extension and D-loop formation (theta classes B, C, and D). To ensure autonomy from the host's replication and to facilitate copy number regulation, theta plasmids have unique mechanisms of replication initiation at the plasmid origin of replication (ori). Tight plasmid copy number regulation is essential because of the major and direct impact plasmid gene dosage has on gene expression. The timing of plasmid replication and segregation are also critical for optimizing plasmid gene expression. Therefore, we propose that plasmid replication needs to be understood in its biological context, where complex origins of replication (redundant origins, mosaic and cointegrated replicons), plasmid segregation, and toxin-antitoxin systems are often present. Highlighting their tight functional integration with ori function, we show that both partition and toxin-antitoxin systems tend to be encoded in close physical proximity to the ori in a large collection of Escherichia coli plasmids. We also propose that adaptation of plasmids to their host optimizes their contribution to the host's fitness while restricting access to broad genetic diversity, and we argue that this trade-off between adaptation to host and access to genetic diversity is likely a determinant factor shaping the distribution of replicons in populations of enterobacteria.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jay W Kim
- Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
| | - Vega Bugata
- Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
| | - Gerardo Cortés-Cortés
- Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
| | - Giselle Quevedo-Martínez
- Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
| | - Manel Camps
- Department of Microbiology and Environmental Toxicology, University of California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064
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29
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Fang Z, Zhou H. Identification of the conjugative and mobilizable plasmid fragments in the plasmidome using sequence signatures. Microb Genom 2020; 6:mgen000459. [PMID: 33074084 PMCID: PMC7725325 DOI: 10.1099/mgen.0.000459] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/20/2020] [Accepted: 10/03/2020] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Plasmids are the key element in horizontal gene transfer in the microbial community. Recently, a large number of experimental and computational methods have been developed to obtain the plasmidomes of microbial communities. Distinguishing transmissible plasmid sequences, which are derived from conjugative or at least mobilizable plasmids, from non-transmissible plasmid sequences in the plasmidome is essential for understanding the diversity of plasmids and how they regulate the microbial community. Unfortunately, due to the highly fragmented characteristics of DNA sequences in the plasmidome, effective identification methods are lacking. In this work, we used information entropy from information theory to assess the randomness of synonymous codon usage over 4424 plasmid genomes. The results showed that for all amino acids, the choice of a synonymous codon in conjugative and mobilizable plasmids is more random than that in non-transmissible plasmids, indicating that transmissible plasmids have different sequence signatures from non-transmissible plasmids. Inspired by this phenomenon, we further developed a novel algorithm named PlasTrans. PlasTrans takes the triplet code sequences and base sequences of plasmid DNA fragments as input and uses the convolutional neural network of the deep learning technique to further extract the more complex signatures of the plasmid sequences and identify the conjugative and mobilizable DNA fragments. Tests showed that PlasTrans could achieve an AUC of as high as 84-91%, even though the fragments only contained hundreds of base pairs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first quantitative analysis of the difference in sequence signatures between transmissible and non-transmissible plasmids, and we developed the first tool to perform transferability annotation for DNA fragments in the plasmidome. We expect that PlasTrans will be a useful tool for researchers who analyse the properties of novel plasmids in the microbial community and horizontal gene transfer, especially the spread of resistance genes and virulence factors associated with plasmids. PlasTrans is freely available via https://github.com/zhenchengfang/PlasTrans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhencheng Fang
- Microbiome Medicine Center, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510280, PR China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, No. 5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, PR China
| | - Hongwei Zhou
- Microbiome Medicine Center, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Zhujiang Hospital, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, 510280, PR China
- State Key Laboratory of Organ Failure Research, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, PR China
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Samantarrai D, Yakkala H, Siddavattam D. Analysis of indigenous plasmid sequences of A. baumannii DS002 reveals the existence of lateral mobility and extensive genetic recombination among Acinetobacter plasmids. J Genet 2020. [DOI: 10.1007/s12041-020-01232-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/23/2022]
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31
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Li Z, Lin Y, Lu L, Wang K, Yang L, Li P, Li J, Jia L, Li P, Song H. Genetic characterisation of a complex class 1 integron in an NDM-1-producing Citrobacter freundii ST396 clinical strain isolated from a urine sample. J Glob Antimicrob Resist 2020; 23:64-66. [PMID: 32818668 DOI: 10.1016/j.jgar.2020.08.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/14/2020] [Revised: 05/08/2020] [Accepted: 08/03/2020] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was to characterise a multidrug-resistant (MDR) Citrobacter freundii strain carrying a blaNDM-1-harbouring conjugative IncA/C2-type plasmid in China. METHODS The whole genome of C. freundii strain L75 was sequenced both on HiSeq® (Novogene Corp., China) and GridION X5 (GrandOmics Biosciences Co., Ltd.) platforms. De novo genome assembly, genome annotation, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and plasmid replicon typing were performed. RESULTS Citrobacter freundii L75 was assigned to ST396 and contains a 5.1-Mb chromosome and two plasmids (∼146 kb and ∼73 kb) designated pCf75 and pCf76, respectively. The antibiotic resistance determinants blaNDM-1, sul1, sul2, arr-3, mph(A), aadA16, aph(3")-Ib, aac(3)-IId, aph(6)-Id, aac(6')-Ib-cr and dfrA27 were located on plasmid pCf75, whilst blaCMY-78 was chromosomally encoded. A 22.1-kb MDR-encoding region (MDRR) in a complex class 1 integron contained all of the resistance genes of plasmid pCf75. CONCLUSIONS We detected and characterised a plasmid carrying a novel MDRR in which a complex class 1 integron plays an essential role. In addition, this study provides fresh genomic insights into the diversity of C. freundii ST396 prevalent in Guangzhou Province, China, and underscores the increasing clinical relevance of the IncA/C2 plasmid family.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhonghong Li
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention of PLA, 20 DongDa Street, Fengtai District, Beijing 100071, China; College of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Nanchang Hangkong University, Nanchang, Jiangxi 330063, China
| | - Yanfeng Lin
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention of PLA, 20 DongDa Street, Fengtai District, Beijing 100071, China; Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Academy of Military Sciences, Beijing 100850, China
| | - Lanfen Lu
- Department of Laboratory, Sun Yat-Sen University affiliated Zhongshan Hospital, Zhongshan, Guangdong 528400, China
| | - Kaiying Wang
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention of PLA, 20 DongDa Street, Fengtai District, Beijing 100071, China; Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Academy of Military Sciences, Beijing 100850, China
| | - Lang Yang
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention of PLA, 20 DongDa Street, Fengtai District, Beijing 100071, China; Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Academy of Military Sciences, Beijing 100850, China
| | - Peihan Li
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention of PLA, 20 DongDa Street, Fengtai District, Beijing 100071, China; Academy of Military Medical Sciences, Academy of Military Sciences, Beijing 100850, China
| | - Jinhui Li
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention of PLA, 20 DongDa Street, Fengtai District, Beijing 100071, China
| | - Leili Jia
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention of PLA, 20 DongDa Street, Fengtai District, Beijing 100071, China
| | - Peng Li
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention of PLA, 20 DongDa Street, Fengtai District, Beijing 100071, China.
| | - Hongbin Song
- Center for Disease Control and Prevention of PLA, 20 DongDa Street, Fengtai District, Beijing 100071, China.
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Newire E, Aydin A, Juma S, Enne VI, Roberts AP. Identification of a Type IV-A CRISPR-Cas System Located Exclusively on IncHI1B/IncFIB Plasmids in Enterobacteriaceae. Front Microbiol 2020; 11:1937. [PMID: 32903441 PMCID: PMC7434947 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.01937] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/04/2020] [Accepted: 07/22/2020] [Indexed: 12/15/2022] Open
Abstract
Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) are diverse immune systems found in many prokaryotic genomes that target invading foreign DNA such as bacteriophages and plasmids. There are multiple types of CRISPR with arguably the most enigmatic being Type IV. During an investigation of CRISPR carriage in clinical, multi-drug resistant, Klebsiella pneumoniae, a Type IV-A3 CRISPR-Cas system was detected on plasmids from two K. pneumoniae isolates from Egypt (isolated in 2002-2003) and a single K. pneumoniae isolate from the United Kingdom (isolated in 2017). Sequence analysis of all other genomes available in GenBank revealed that this CRISPR-Cas system was present on 28 other plasmids from various Enterobacteriaceae hosts and was never found on a bacterial chromosome. This system is exclusively located on IncHI1B/IncFIB plasmids and is associated with multiple putative transposable elements. Expression of the cas loci was confirmed in the available clinical isolates by RT-PCR. In all cases, the CRISPR-Cas system has a single CRISPR array (CRISPR1) upstream of the cas loci which has several, conserved, spacers which, amongst things, match regions within conjugal transfer genes of IncFIIK/IncFIB(K) plasmids. Our results reveal a Type IV-A3 CRISPR-Cas system exclusively located on IncHI1B/IncFIB plasmids in Enterobacteriaceae that is likely to be able to target IncFIIK/IncFIB(K) plasmids presumably facilitating intracellular, inter-plasmid competition.
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Affiliation(s)
- Enas Newire
- UCL Eastman Dental Institute, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Alp Aydin
- Centre for Clinical Microbiology, Royal Free Hospital, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Samina Juma
- Centre for Clinical Microbiology, Royal Free Hospital, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Virve I. Enne
- Centre for Clinical Microbiology, Royal Free Hospital, University College London, London, United Kingdom
| | - Adam P. Roberts
- Department of Tropical Disease Biology, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, United Kingdom
- Centre for Drugs and Diagnostics, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Liverpool, United Kingdom
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Lewicka E, Dolowy P, Godziszewska J, Litwin E, Ludwiczak M, Jagura-Burdzy G. Transcriptional Organization of the Stability Module of Broad-Host-Range Plasmid RA3, from the IncU Group. Appl Environ Microbiol 2020; 86:e00847-20. [PMID: 32532870 PMCID: PMC7414963 DOI: 10.1128/aem.00847-20] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/09/2020] [Accepted: 06/06/2020] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
The broad-host-range (BHR) conjugative plasmids have developed diverse adaptive mechanisms defining the range of their promiscuity. The BHR conjugative RA3 plasmid, the archetype of the IncU group, can transfer between, replicate in, and be maintained in representatives of Alpha-, Beta-, and Gammaproteobacteria Its stability module encompasses ten open reading frames (ORFs) apparently organized into five operons, all transcribed in the same direction from several strong promoters that are tightly regulated either by autorepressors or by global plasmid-encoded regulators. In this paper, we demonstrate that owing to an efficient RNA polymerase (RNAP) read-through, the transcription from the first promoter, orf02p, may continue through the whole module. Moreover, an analysis of mRNA produced from the wild-type (WT) stability module and its deletion variants deprived of particular internal transcription initiation sites reveals that in fact each operon may be transcribed from any upstream promoter, giving rise to multicistronic transcripts of variable length and creating an additional level of gene expression control by transcript dosage adjustment. The gene expression patterns differ among various hosts, indicating that promoter recognition, regulation, and the RNAP read-through mechanisms are modulated in a species-specific manner.IMPORTANCE The efficiently disseminating conjugative or mobilizable BHR plasmids play key roles in the horizontal spread of genetic information between closely related and phylogenetically distant species, which can be harmful from the medical, veterinary, or industrial point of view. Understanding the mechanisms determining the plasmid's ability to function in diverse hosts is essential to help limit the spread of undesirable plasmid-encoded traits, e.g., antibiotic resistance. The range of a plasmid's promiscuity depends on the adaptations of its transfer, replication, and stability functions to the various hosts. IncU plasmids, with the archetype plasmid RA3, are considered to constitute a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes in aquatic environments; however, the molecular mechanisms determining their adaptability to a broad range of hosts are rather poorly characterized. Here, we present the transcriptional organization of the stability module and show that the gene transcript dosage effect is an important determinant of the stable maintenance of RA3 in different hosts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ewa Lewicka
- Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Patrycja Dolowy
- Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Jolanta Godziszewska
- Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Emilia Litwin
- Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Marta Ludwiczak
- Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
| | - Grazyna Jagura-Burdzy
- Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
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34
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Baltrus DA. Bacterial dispersal and biogeography as underappreciated influences on phytobiomes. CURRENT OPINION IN PLANT BIOLOGY 2020; 56:37-46. [PMID: 32278259 DOI: 10.1016/j.pbi.2020.02.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/13/2019] [Revised: 02/14/2020] [Accepted: 02/25/2020] [Indexed: 06/11/2023]
Abstract
Bacterial strains are not distributed evenly throughout the environment. Here I explore how differential distribution and dispersal patterns of bacteria could affect interactions and coevolutionary dynamics with plants, and highlight ways that variation could be taken advantage of to develop robust and effective microbial consortia to inoculate crops. Questions about biogeographical patterns in viruses, fungi, and other eukaryotes are equally as prevalent and important for agriculture, and are in some cases more thoroughly explored. For simplicity as well as to bring attention to bacterial biogeography and dispersal in the context of plant interactions, I focus solely on bacterial patterns and questions for this article. The next few years will no doubt bring great advances in our understanding of dispersal capabilities and population dynamics for many plant-associated bacteria, and one of the next looming challenges will be learning to harvest this diversity in ways that can benefit agriculture.
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Affiliation(s)
- David A Baltrus
- School of Plant Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ, USA; School of Animal and Comparative Biomedical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson AZ, USA.
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35
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Checcucci A, Trevisi P, Luise D, Modesto M, Blasioli S, Braschi I, Mattarelli P. Exploring the Animal Waste Resistome: The Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes Through the Use of Livestock Manure. Front Microbiol 2020; 11:1416. [PMID: 32793126 PMCID: PMC7387501 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.01416] [Citation(s) in RCA: 57] [Impact Index Per Article: 14.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/19/2020] [Accepted: 06/02/2020] [Indexed: 12/11/2022] Open
Abstract
Antibiotic resistance is a public health problem of growing concern. Animal manure application to soil is considered to be a main cause of the propagation and dissemination of antibiotic residues, antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARB), and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) in the soil-water system. In recent decades, studies on the impact of antibiotic-contaminated manure on soil microbiomes have increased exponentially, in particular for taxonomical diversity and ARGs’ diffusion. Antibiotic resistance genes are often located on mobile genetic elements (MGEs). Horizontal transfer of MGEs toward a broad range of bacteria (pathogens and human commensals included) has been identified as the main cause for their persistence and dissemination. Chemical and bio-sanitizing treatments reduce the antibiotic load and ARB. Nevertheless, effects of these treatments on the persistence of resistance genes must be carefully considered. This review analyzed the most recent research on antibiotic and ARG environmental dissemination conveyed by livestock waste. Strategies to control ARG dissemination and antibiotic persistence were reviewed with the aim to identify methods for monitoring DNA transferability and environmental conditions promoting such diffusion.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alice Checcucci
- Department of Agricultural and Food Science, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Paolo Trevisi
- Department of Agricultural and Food Science, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Diana Luise
- Department of Agricultural and Food Science, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Monica Modesto
- Department of Agricultural and Food Science, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Sonia Blasioli
- Department of Agricultural and Food Science, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Ilaria Braschi
- Department of Agricultural and Food Science, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
| | - Paola Mattarelli
- Department of Agricultural and Food Science, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy
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36
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Redondo-Salvo S, Fernández-López R, Ruiz R, Vielva L, de Toro M, Rocha EPC, Garcillán-Barcia MP, de la Cruz F. Pathways for horizontal gene transfer in bacteria revealed by a global map of their plasmids. Nat Commun 2020; 11:3602. [PMID: 32681114 PMCID: PMC7367871 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-17278-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 165] [Impact Index Per Article: 41.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/15/2019] [Accepted: 06/19/2020] [Indexed: 01/04/2023] Open
Abstract
Plasmids can mediate horizontal gene transfer of antibiotic resistance, virulence genes, and other adaptive factors across bacterial populations. Here, we analyze genomic composition and pairwise sequence identity for over 10,000 reference plasmids to obtain a global map of the prokaryotic plasmidome. Plasmids in this map organize into discrete clusters, which we call plasmid taxonomic units (PTUs), with high average nucleotide identity between its members. We identify 83 PTUs in the order Enterobacterales, 28 of them corresponding to previously described archetypes. Furthermore, we develop an automated algorithm for PTU identification, and validate its performance using stochastic blockmodeling. The algorithm reveals a total of 276 PTUs in the bacterial domain. Each PTU exhibits a characteristic host distribution, organized into a six-grade scale (I–VI), ranging from plasmids restricted to a single host species (grade I) to plasmids able to colonize species from different phyla (grade VI). More than 60% of the plasmids in the global map are in groups with host ranges beyond the species barrier. Plasmids can mediate gene transfer across bacterial populations. Here, the authors describe a global map of the prokaryotic plasmidome, where plasmids organize into discrete ‘plasmid taxonomic units’ based on their genomic composition and pairwise sequence identity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Santiago Redondo-Salvo
- Instituto de Biomedicina y Biotecnología de Cantabria (IBBTEC), Universidad de Cantabria-CSIC, C/Albert Einstein 22, 39011, Santander, Spain
| | - Raúl Fernández-López
- Instituto de Biomedicina y Biotecnología de Cantabria (IBBTEC), Universidad de Cantabria-CSIC, C/Albert Einstein 22, 39011, Santander, Spain
| | - Raúl Ruiz
- Instituto de Biomedicina y Biotecnología de Cantabria (IBBTEC), Universidad de Cantabria-CSIC, C/Albert Einstein 22, 39011, Santander, Spain
| | - Luis Vielva
- Departamento de Ingeniería de las Comunicaciones, Universidad de Cantabria, Santander, Spain
| | - María de Toro
- CIBIR, Centro de Investigación Biomédica de La Rioja, Logroño, Spain
| | - Eduardo P C Rocha
- Microbial Evolutionary Genomics, Institut Pasteur, CNRS, UMR3525, Paris, France
| | - M Pilar Garcillán-Barcia
- Instituto de Biomedicina y Biotecnología de Cantabria (IBBTEC), Universidad de Cantabria-CSIC, C/Albert Einstein 22, 39011, Santander, Spain
| | - Fernando de la Cruz
- Instituto de Biomedicina y Biotecnología de Cantabria (IBBTEC), Universidad de Cantabria-CSIC, C/Albert Einstein 22, 39011, Santander, Spain.
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37
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Tokuda M, Suzuki H, Yanagiya K, Yuki M, Inoue K, Ohkuma M, Kimbara K, Shintani M. Determination of Plasmid pSN1216-29 Host Range and the Similarity in Oligonucleotide Composition Between Plasmid and Host Chromosomes. Front Microbiol 2020; 11:1187. [PMID: 32582111 PMCID: PMC7296055 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.01187] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2020] [Accepted: 05/11/2020] [Indexed: 12/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Plasmids are extrachromosomal DNA that can be horizontally transferred between different bacterial cells by conjugation. Horizontal gene transfer of plasmids can promote rapid evolution and adaptation of bacteria by imparting various traits involved in antibiotic resistance, virulence, and metabolism to their hosts. The host range of plasmids is an important feature for understanding how they spread in environmental microbial communities. Earlier bioinformatics studies have demonstrated that plasmids are likely to have similar oligonucleotide (k-mer) compositions to their host chromosomes and that evolutionary host ranges of plasmids could be predicted from this similarity. However, there are no complementary studies to assess the consistency between the predicted evolutionary host range and experimentally determined replication/transfer host range of a plasmid. In the present study, the replication/transfer host range of a model plasmid, pSN1216-29, exogenously isolated from cow manure as a newly discovered self-transmissible plasmid, was experimentally determined within microbial communities extracted from soil and cow manure. In silico prediction of evolutionary host range was performed with the pSN1216-29 using its oligonucleotide compositions independently. The results showed that oligonucleotide compositions of the plasmid pSN1216-29 had more similarities to those of hosts (transconjugants genera) than those of non-hosts (other genera). These findings can contribute to the understanding of how plasmids behave in microbial communities, and aid in the designing of appropriate plasmid vectors for different bacteria.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maho Tokuda
- Applied Chemistry and Biochemical Engineering Course, Department of Engineering, Graduate School of Integrated Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan
| | - Haruo Suzuki
- Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University, Tsuruoka, Japan.,Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University, Fujisawa, Japan
| | - Kosuke Yanagiya
- Applied Chemistry and Biochemical Engineering Course, Department of Engineering, Graduate School of Integrated Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan
| | - Masahiro Yuki
- Japan Collection of Microorganisms, RIKEN BioResource Research Center, Tsukuba, Japan
| | - Kengo Inoue
- Faculty of Agriculture, University of Miyazaki, Miyazaki, Japan
| | - Moriya Ohkuma
- Japan Collection of Microorganisms, RIKEN BioResource Research Center, Tsukuba, Japan
| | - Kazuhide Kimbara
- Applied Chemistry and Biochemical Engineering Course, Department of Engineering, Graduate School of Integrated Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan
| | - Masaki Shintani
- Applied Chemistry and Biochemical Engineering Course, Department of Engineering, Graduate School of Integrated Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan.,Japan Collection of Microorganisms, RIKEN BioResource Research Center, Tsukuba, Japan.,Research Institute of Green Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, Shizuoka, Japan
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38
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The Evolution of Protein Secretion Systems by Co-option and Tinkering of Cellular Machineries. Trends Microbiol 2020; 28:372-386. [DOI: 10.1016/j.tim.2020.01.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 26] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/31/2019] [Revised: 11/21/2019] [Accepted: 01/16/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023]
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39
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Douarre PE, Mallet L, Radomski N, Felten A, Mistou MY. Analysis of COMPASS, a New Comprehensive Plasmid Database Revealed Prevalence of Multireplicon and Extensive Diversity of IncF Plasmids. Front Microbiol 2020; 11:483. [PMID: 32265894 PMCID: PMC7105883 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2020.00483] [Citation(s) in RCA: 44] [Impact Index Per Article: 11.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/08/2019] [Accepted: 03/05/2020] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Plasmids are genetic elements that enable rapid adaptation and evolution by transferring genes conferring selective advantages to their hosts. Conjugative plasmids are predominantly responsible for the global dissemination of antimicrobial resistance, representing an important threat to global health. As the number of plasmid sequences grows exponentially, it becomes critical to depict the global diversity and decipher the distribution of circulating plasmids in the bacterial community. To this end, we created COMPASS, a novel and comprehensive database compiling 12,084 complete plasmids with associated metadata from 1571 distinct species isolated worldwide over more than 100 years. The curation of the database allowed us to identify identical plasmids across different bacteria revealing mainly intraspecies dissemination and rare cases of horizontal transmission. We outlined and analyzed all relevant features, plasmid properties, host range and characterized their replication and mobilization systems. After an exhaustive comparison of PlasmidFinder and MOB-typer, the MOB-typer-based analysis revealed that the current knowledge embedded in the current typing schemes fails to classify all the plasmid sequences collected in COMPASS. We were able to categorize 6828 and 5229 plasmids by replicon and MOB typing, respectively, mostly associated with Proteobacteria and Firmicutes. We then searched for the presence of multiple core genes involved in replication and propagation. Our results showed that 2403 plasmids carried multiple replicons that were distributed in 206 bacterial species. The co-integration of replicon types from different incompatibility (Inc) groups is an adaptive mechanism, which plays an important role in plasmid survival and dissemination by extending their host range. Our results highlight the crucial role of IncF alleles (present in 56% of all multireplicons) and revealed that IncH, IncR, and IncU replicons were also frequently carried in multireplicons. Here, we provided a comprehensive picture of the different IncF subtypes by identifying 20 different profiles in 849 IncF multireplicons, which were mostly associated with Enterobacteriaceae. These results could provide the basis for a novel IncF plasmid nomenclature based on different allelic profiles.
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Affiliation(s)
- Pierre-Emmanuel Douarre
- Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire de l’Alimentation, de l’Environnement et du Travail, Laboratory for Food Safety, Paris, France
| | - Ludovic Mallet
- Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire de l’Alimentation, de l’Environnement et du Travail, Laboratory for Food Safety, Paris, France
| | - Nicolas Radomski
- Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire de l’Alimentation, de l’Environnement et du Travail, Laboratory for Food Safety, Paris, France
| | - Arnaud Felten
- Agence Nationale de Sécurité Sanitaire de l’Alimentation, de l’Environnement et du Travail, Laboratory for Food Safety, Paris, France
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Cury J, Oliveira PH, de la Cruz F, Rocha EPC. Host Range and Genetic Plasticity Explain the Coexistence of Integrative and Extrachromosomal Mobile Genetic Elements. Mol Biol Evol 2020; 35:2230-2239. [PMID: 29905872 PMCID: PMC6107060 DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msy123] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/06/2023] Open
Abstract
Self-transmissible mobile genetic elements drive horizontal gene transfer between prokaryotes. Some of these elements integrate in the chromosome, whereas others replicate autonomously as plasmids. Recent works showed the existence of few differences, and occasional interconversion, between the two types of elements. Here, we enquired on why evolutionary processes have maintained the two types of mobile genetic elements by comparing integrative and conjugative elements (ICE) with extrachromosomal ones (conjugative plasmids) of the highly abundant MPFT conjugative type. We observed that plasmids encode more replicases, partition systems, and antibiotic resistance genes, whereas ICEs encode more integrases and metabolism-associated genes. ICEs and plasmids have similar average sizes, but plasmids are much more variable, have more DNA repeats, and exchange genes more frequently. On the other hand, we found that ICEs are more frequently transferred between distant taxa. We propose a model where the different genetic plasticity and amplitude of host range between elements explain the co-occurrence of integrative and extrachromosomal elements in microbial populations. In particular, the conversion from ICE to plasmid allows ICE to be more plastic, while the conversion from plasmid to ICE allows the expansion of the element's host range.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jean Cury
- Microbial Evolutionary Genomics, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.,CNRS, UMR3525, Paris, France
| | - Pedro H Oliveira
- Microbial Evolutionary Genomics, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.,CNRS, UMR3525, Paris, France
| | - Fernando de la Cruz
- Departamento de Biologia Molecular e Instituto de Biomedicina y Biotecnologia de Cantabria (IBBTEC), Universidad de Cantabria-CSIC, Santander, Spain
| | - Eduardo P C Rocha
- Microbial Evolutionary Genomics, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.,CNRS, UMR3525, Paris, France
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41
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Kaur T, Balgir PP, Kaur B. Construction of a shuttle expression vector for lactic acid bacteria. J Genet Eng Biotechnol 2019; 17:10. [PMID: 31736018 PMCID: PMC6859148 DOI: 10.1186/s43141-019-0013-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/25/2019] [Accepted: 10/02/2019] [Indexed: 12/12/2022]
Abstract
Background Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are a diverse group of Gram-positive bacteria, which are widely distributed in various diverse natural habitats. These are used in a variety of industrial food fermentations and carry numerous traits with utmost relevance to the food industry. Genetic engineering has emerged as an effective means to improve and enhance the potential of commercially important bacterial strains. However, the biosafety of recombinant systems is an important concern during the implementation of such technologies on an industrial scale. In order to overcome this issue, cloning and expression systems have been developed preferably from fully characterized and annotated LAB plasmids encoding genes with known functions. Results The developed shuttle vector pPBT-GFP contains two theta-type replicons with a copy number of 4.4 and 2.8 in Pediococcus acidilactici MTCC 5101 and Lactobacillus brevis MTCC 1750, respectively. Antimicrobial “pediocin” produced by P. acidilactici MTCC 5101 and green fluorescent protein (GFP) of Aequorea victoria were successfully expressed as selectable markers. Heterologous bile salt hydrolase (BSH) from Lactobacillus fermentum NCDO 394 has been efficiently expressed in the host strains showing high specific activity of 126.12 ± 10.62 in P. acidilactici MTCC 5101 and 95.43 ± 4.26 in the case of L. brevis MTCC 1750, towards glycine-conjugated bile salts preferably as compared to taurine-conjugated salts. Conclusion The present article details the development of a LAB/LAB shuttle expression vector pPBT-GFP, capable of replication in LAB hosts, P. acidilactici MTCC 5101, and L. brevis MTCC 1750. Pediocin and GFP have been used as selectable markers with the efficient production of heterologous extracellular bile salt hydrolase. Thus, the constructed vector pPBT-GFP, with its ability to replicate in multiple hosts, low copy number, and stability in host cells, may serve as an ideal tool for improving LAB strains of commercial value using genetic engineering.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tejinder Kaur
- Department of Biotechnology, Punjabi University, Patiala, 147002, India.
| | - Praveen P Balgir
- Department of Biotechnology, Punjabi University, Patiala, 147002, India
| | - Baljinder Kaur
- Department of Biotechnology, Punjabi University, Patiala, 147002, India
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Stalder T, Press MO, Sullivan S, Liachko I, Top EM. Linking the resistome and plasmidome to the microbiome. THE ISME JOURNAL 2019; 13:2437-2446. [PMID: 31147603 PMCID: PMC6776055 DOI: 10.1038/s41396-019-0446-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 128] [Impact Index Per Article: 25.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2019] [Revised: 05/02/2019] [Accepted: 05/10/2019] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
The rapid spread of antibiotic resistance among bacterial pathogens is a serious human health threat. While a range of environments have been identified as reservoirs of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), we lack understanding of the origins of these ARGs and their spread from environment to clinic. This is partly due to our inability to identify the natural bacterial hosts of ARGs and the mobile genetic elements that mediate this spread, such as plasmids and integrons. Here we demonstrate that the in vivo proximity-ligation method Hi-C can reconstruct a known plasmid-host association from a wastewater community, and identify the in situ host range of ARGs, plasmids, and integrons by physically linking them to their host chromosomes. Hi-C detected both previously known and novel associations between ARGs, mobile genetic elements and host genomes, thus validating this method. We showed that IncQ plasmids and class 1 integrons had the broadest host range in this wastewater, and identified bacteria belonging to Moraxellaceae, Bacteroides, and Prevotella, and especially Aeromonadaceae as the most likely reservoirs of ARGs in this community. A better identification of the natural carriers of ARGs will aid the development of strategies to limit resistance spread to pathogens.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thibault Stalder
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844, USA.
- Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844, USA.
| | | | | | | | - Eva M Top
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844, USA.
- Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, 83844, USA.
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43
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Brooks LE, Kaze M, Sistrom M. Where the plasmids roam: large-scale sequence analysis reveals plasmids with large host ranges. Microb Genom 2019; 5. [PMID: 30625112 PMCID: PMC6412061 DOI: 10.1099/mgen.0.000244] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Describing the role of plasmids and their contribution to the exchange of genetic material among bacteria is essential for understanding the fields of plasmid epidemiology, microbial ecology, and commercial and synthetic microbiology. Broad-host-range (BHR) plasmids are those that are found not only in a single bacterial species, but in members of different taxonomic groups and are of significant interest to researchers in many fields. We applied a novel approach to computationally identify new BHR plasmids, in which we searched for highly similar cognate plasmids within a comprehensive plasmid database. After identifying 125 plasmid groups with highly similar cognates found in multiple taxa, we closely examined BHR plasmids found in multiple families. The majority of our identified BHR plasmids are found in members of the Enterobacteriaceae and closely related taxa, while three BHR plasmids of potential commercial significance were found in two species of Cyanobacteria. One plasmid with an exceptionally broad host range was found in both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacterial species. This analysis demonstrates the utility of this method in identifying new BHR plasmids while highlighting unknown ranges of previously documented plasmids.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lauren Elisabeth Brooks
- 2Utah Valley University, 800 W. University Parkway, Orem, UT 84058, USA.,1University of California, Merced. 5200 N. Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343, USA
| | - Mo Kaze
- 1University of California, Merced. 5200 N. Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343, USA
| | - Mark Sistrom
- 1University of California, Merced. 5200 N. Lake Road, Merced, CA 95343, USA
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44
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Di Pilato V, Antonelli A, Giani T, Henrici De Angelis L, Rossolini GM, Pollini S. Identification of a Novel Plasmid Lineage Associated With the Dissemination of Metallo-β-Lactamase Genes Among Pseudomonads. Front Microbiol 2019; 10:1504. [PMID: 31312195 PMCID: PMC6614342 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.01504] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/08/2019] [Accepted: 06/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/23/2022] Open
Abstract
Acquisition of metallo-β-lactamases (MBLs) represents one of most relevant resistance mechanisms to all β-lactams, including carbapenems, ceftolozane and available β-lactamase inhibitors, in Pseudomonas spp. VIM-type enzymes are the most common acquired MBLs in Pseudomonas aeruginosa and, to a lesser extent, in other Pseudomonas species. Little is known about the acquisition dynamics of these determinants, that are usually carried on integrons embedded into chromosomal mobile genetic elements. To date, few MBL-encoding plasmids have been described in Pseudomonas spp., and their diversity and role in the dissemination of these MBLs remains largely unknown. Here we report on the genetic features of the VIM-1-encoding plasmid pMOS94 from P. mosselii AM/94, the earliest known VIM-1-producing strain, and of related elements involved in dissemination of MBL. Results of plasmid DNA sequencing showed that pMOS94 had a modular organization, consisting of backbone modules associated with replication, transfer and antibiotic resistance. Plasmid pMOS94, although not typable according to the PBRT scheme, was classifiable either in MOBF11 or MPFT plasmid families. The resistance region included the class I integron In70, carrying bla V IM-1, in turn embedded in a defective Tn402-like transposon. Comparison with pMOS94-like elements led to the identification of a defined plasmid lineage circulating in different Pseudomonas spp. of clinical and environmental origin and spreading different MBL-encoding genes, including bla IMP-63, bla BIM, and bla V IM-type determinants. Genetic analysis revealed that this plasmid lineage likely shared a common ancestor and had evolved through the acquisition and recombination of different mobile elements, including the MBL-encoding transposons. Our findings provide new insights about the genetic diversity of MBL-encoding plasmids circulating among Pseudomonas spp., potentially useful for molecular epidemiology purposes, and revealed the existence and persistence of a successful plasmid lineage over a wide spatio-temporal interval, spanning over five different countries among two continents and over 20-years.
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Affiliation(s)
- Vincenzo Di Pilato
- Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
| | - Alberto Antonelli
- Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy
| | - Tommaso Giani
- Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.,Microbiology and Virology Unit, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy
| | | | - Gian Maria Rossolini
- Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.,Microbiology and Virology Unit, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy
| | - Simona Pollini
- Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.,Microbiology and Virology Unit, Careggi University Hospital, Florence, Italy
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45
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Rozwandowicz M, Brouwer MSM, Fischer J, Wagenaar JA, Gonzalez-Zorn B, Guerra B, Mevius DJ, Hordijk J. Plasmids carrying antimicrobial resistance genes in Enterobacteriaceae. J Antimicrob Chemother 2019; 73:1121-1137. [PMID: 29370371 DOI: 10.1093/jac/dkx488] [Citation(s) in RCA: 505] [Impact Index Per Article: 101.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Bacterial antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is constantly evolving and horizontal gene transfer through plasmids plays a major role. The identification of plasmid characteristics and their association with different bacterial hosts provides crucial knowledge that is essential to understand the contribution of plasmids to the transmission of AMR determinants. Molecular identification of plasmid and strain genotypes elicits a distinction between spread of AMR genes by plasmids and dissemination of these genes by spread of bacterial clones. For this reason several methods are used to type the plasmids, e.g. PCR-based replicon typing (PBRT) or relaxase typing. Currently, there are 28 known plasmid types in Enterobacteriaceae distinguished by PBRT. Frequently reported plasmids [IncF, IncI, IncA/C, IncL (previously designated IncL/M), IncN and IncH] are the ones that bear the greatest variety of resistance genes. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of all known AMR-related plasmid families in Enterobacteriaceae, the resistance genes they carry and their geographical distribution.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Rozwandowicz
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - M S M Brouwer
- Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, Lelystad, The Netherlands
| | - J Fischer
- Department of Biological Safety, Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, BfR, Berlin, Germany
| | - J A Wagenaar
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.,Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, Lelystad, The Netherlands
| | - B Gonzalez-Zorn
- Department of Animal Health and VISAVET, Complutense University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
| | - B Guerra
- Department of Biological Safety, Federal Institute for Risk Assessment, BfR, Berlin, Germany
| | - D J Mevius
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands.,Wageningen Bioveterinary Research, Lelystad, The Netherlands
| | - J Hordijk
- Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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46
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Fang Z, Tan J, Wu S, Li M, Xu C, Xie Z, Zhu H. PPR-Meta: a tool for identifying phages and plasmids from metagenomic fragments using deep learning. Gigascience 2019; 8:giz066. [PMID: 31220250 PMCID: PMC6586199 DOI: 10.1093/gigascience/giz066] [Citation(s) in RCA: 84] [Impact Index Per Article: 16.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/20/2018] [Revised: 03/26/2019] [Accepted: 05/14/2019] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
BACKGROUND Phages and plasmids are the major components of mobile genetic elements, and fragments from such elements generally co-exist with chromosome-derived fragments in sequenced metagenomic data. However, there is a lack of efficient methods that can simultaneously identify phages and plasmids in metagenomic data, and the existing tools identifying either phages or plasmids have not yet presented satisfactory performance. FINDINGS We present PPR-Meta, a 3-class classifier that allows simultaneous identification of both phage and plasmid fragments from metagenomic assemblies. PPR-Meta consists of several modules for predicting sequences of different lengths. Using deep learning, a novel network architecture, referred to as the Bi-path Convolutional Neural Network, is designed to improve the performance for short fragments. PPR-Meta demonstrates much better performance than currently available similar tools individually for phage or plasmid identification, while testing on both artificial contigs and real metagenomic data. PPR-Meta is freely available via http://cqb.pku.edu.cn/ZhuLab/PPR_Meta or https://github.com/zhenchengfang/PPR-Meta. CONCLUSIONS To the best of our knowledge, PPR-Meta is the first tool that can simultaneously identify phage and plasmid fragments efficiently and reliably. The software is optimized and can be easily run on a local PC by non-computer professionals. We developed PPR-Meta to promote the research on mobile genetic elements and horizontal gene transfer.
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Affiliation(s)
- Zhencheng Fang
- State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems and Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Jie Tan
- State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems and Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Shufang Wu
- State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems and Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Mo Li
- State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems and Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
- Peking University-Tsinghua University - National Institute of Biological Sciences (PTN) joint PhD program, School of Life Sciences, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Congmin Xu
- State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems and Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University, 631 Cherry St, Atlanta, Georgia 30332, GA, USA
| | - Zhongjie Xie
- State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems and Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
| | - Huaiqiu Zhu
- State Key Laboratory for Turbulence and Complex Systems and Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
- Center for Quantitative Biology, Peking University, No.5 Yiheyuan Road Haidian District, Beijing 100871, China
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47
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Klebsiella quasipneumoniae Provides a Window into Carbapenemase Gene Transfer, Plasmid Rearrangements, and Patient Interactions with the Hospital Environment. Antimicrob Agents Chemother 2019; 63:AAC.02513-18. [PMID: 30910889 PMCID: PMC6535554 DOI: 10.1128/aac.02513-18] [Citation(s) in RCA: 40] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2018] [Accepted: 03/08/2019] [Indexed: 12/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Several emerging pathogens have arisen as a result of selection pressures exerted by modern health care. Klebsiella quasipneumoniae was recently defined as a new species, yet its prevalence, niche, and propensity to acquire antimicrobial resistance genes are not fully described. Several emerging pathogens have arisen as a result of selection pressures exerted by modern health care. Klebsiella quasipneumoniae was recently defined as a new species, yet its prevalence, niche, and propensity to acquire antimicrobial resistance genes are not fully described. We have been tracking inter- and intraspecies transmission of the Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC) gene, blaKPC, between bacteria isolated from a single institution. We applied a combination of Illumina and PacBio whole-genome sequencing to identify and compare K. quasipneumoniae from patients and the hospital environment over 10- and 5-year periods, respectively. There were 32 blaKPC-positive K. quasipneumoniae isolates, all of which were identified as K. pneumoniae in the clinical microbiology laboratory, from 8 patients and 11 sink drains, with evidence for seven separate blaKPC plasmid acquisitions. Analysis of a single subclade of K. quasipneumoniae subsp. quasipneumoniae (n = 23 isolates) from three patients and six rooms demonstrated seeding of a sink by a patient, subsequent persistence of the strain in the hospital environment, and then possible transmission to another patient. Longitudinal analysis of this strain demonstrated the acquisition of two unique blaKPC plasmids and then subsequent within-strain genetic rearrangement through transposition and homologous recombination. Our analysis highlights the apparent molecular propensity of K. quasipneumoniae to persist in the environment as well as acquire carbapenemase plasmids from other species and enabled an assessment of the genetic rearrangements which may facilitate horizontal transmission of carbapenemases.
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48
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Fan XT, Li H, Chen QL, Zhang YS, Ye J, Zhu YG, Su JQ. Fate of Antibiotic Resistant Pseudomonas putida and Broad Host Range Plasmid in Natural Soil Microcosms. Front Microbiol 2019; 10:194. [PMID: 30881351 PMCID: PMC6407330 DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.00194] [Citation(s) in RCA: 35] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/30/2018] [Accepted: 01/23/2019] [Indexed: 12/03/2022] Open
Abstract
Plasmid conjugation is one of the dominant mechanisms of horizontal gene transfer, playing a noticeable role in the rapid spread of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs). Broad host range plasmids are known to transfer to diverse bacteria in extracted soil bacterial communities when evaluated by filter mating incubation. However, the persistence and dissemination of broad range plasmid in natural soil has not been well studied. In this study, Pseudomonas putida with a conjugative antibiotic resistance plasmid RP4 was inoculated into a soil microcosm, the fate and persistence of P. putida and RP4 were monitored by quantitative PCR. The concentrations of P. putida and RP4 both rapidly decreased within 15-day incubation. P. putida then decayed at a significantly lower rate during subsequent incubation, however, no further decay of RP4 was observed, resulting in an elevated RP4/P. putida ratio (up to 10) after 75-day incubation, which implied potential transfer of RP4 to soil microbiota. We further sorted RP4 recipient bacteria from the soil microcosms by fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Spread of RP4 increased during 75-day microcosm operation and was estimated at around 10-4 transconjugants per recipient at the end of incubation. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene sequences of transconjugants showed that host bacteria of RP4 were affiliated to more than 15 phyla, with increased diversity and shift in the composition of host bacteria. Proteobacteria was the most dominant phylum in the transconjugant pools. Transient transfer of RP4 to some host bacteria was observed. These results emphasize the prolonged persistence of P. putida and RP4 in natural soil microcosms, and highlight the potential risks of increased spread potential of plasmid and broader range of host bacteria in disseminating ARGs in soil.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiao-Ting Fan
- Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Hu Li
- Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China
| | - Qing-Lin Chen
- Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China
| | - Yu-Sen Zhang
- Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Jun Ye
- Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China
| | - Yong-Guan Zhu
- Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China.,University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.,State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
| | - Jian-Qiang Su
- Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen, China
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49
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Yano H, Shintani M, Tomita M, Suzuki H, Oshima T. Reconsidering plasmid maintenance factors for computational plasmid design. Comput Struct Biotechnol J 2018; 17:70-81. [PMID: 30619542 PMCID: PMC6312765 DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2018.12.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/23/2018] [Revised: 12/08/2018] [Accepted: 12/09/2018] [Indexed: 12/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Plasmids are genetic parasites of microorganisms. The genomes of naturally occurring plasmids are expected to be polished via natural selection to achieve long-term persistence in the microbial cell population. However, plasmid genomes are extremely diverse, and the rules governing plasmid genomes are not fully understood. Therefore, computationally designing plasmid genomes optimized for model and nonmodel organisms remains challenging. Here, we summarize current knowledge of the plasmid genome organization and the factors that can affect plasmid persistence, with the aim of constructing synthetic plasmids for use in gram-negative bacteria. Then, we introduce publicly available resources, plasmid data, and bioinformatics tools that are useful for computational plasmid design.
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Affiliation(s)
- Hirokazu Yano
- Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University, 2-1-1, Katahira, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8577, Japan
| | - Masaki Shintani
- Department of Engineering, Graduate School of Integrated Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, 3-5-1, Hamamatsu 432-8561, Japan
- Department of Bioscience, Graduate School of Science and Technology, Shizuoka University, 3-5-1, Hamamatsu 432-8561, Japan
| | - Masaru Tomita
- Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University, 14-1, Baba-cho, Tsuruoka, Yamagata 997-0035, Japan
- Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University, 5322, Endo, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 252-0882, Japan
| | - Haruo Suzuki
- Institute for Advanced Biosciences, Keio University, 14-1, Baba-cho, Tsuruoka, Yamagata 997-0035, Japan
- Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, Keio University, 5322, Endo, Fujisawa, Kanagawa 252-0882, Japan
| | - Taku Oshima
- Department of Biotechnology, Toyama Prefectural University, 5180, Kurokawa, Imizu, Toyama 939-0398, Japan
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50
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Blau K, Bettermann A, Jechalke S, Fornefeld E, Vanrobaeys Y, Stalder T, Top EM, Smalla K. The Transferable Resistome of Produce. mBio 2018; 9:e01300-18. [PMID: 30401772 PMCID: PMC6222124 DOI: 10.1128/mbio.01300-18] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/14/2018] [Accepted: 09/20/2018] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Produce is increasingly recognized as a reservoir of human pathogens and transferable antibiotic resistance genes. This study aimed to explore methods to characterize the transferable resistome of bacteria associated with produce. Mixed salad, arugula, and cilantro purchased from supermarkets in Germany were analyzed by means of cultivation- and DNA-based methods. Before and after a nonselective enrichment step, tetracycline (TET)-resistant Escherichia coli were isolated and plasmids conferring TET resistance were captured by exogenous plasmid isolation. TET-resistant E. coli isolates, transconjugants, and total community DNA (TC-DNA) from the microbial fraction detached from leaves or after enrichment were analyzed for the presence of resistance genes, class 1 integrons, and various plasmids by real-time PCR and PCR-Southern blot hybridization. Real-time PCR primers were developed for IncI and IncF plasmids. TET-resistant E. coli isolated from arugula and cilantro carried IncF, IncI1, IncN, IncHI1, IncU, and IncX1 plasmids. Three isolates from cilantro were positive for IncN plasmids and blaCTX-M-1 From mixed salad and cilantro, IncF, IncI1, and IncP-1β plasmids were captured exogenously. Importantly, whereas direct detection of IncI and IncF plasmids in TC-DNA failed, these plasmids became detectable in DNA extracted from enrichment cultures. This confirms that cultivation-independent DNA-based methods are not always sufficiently sensitive to detect the transferable resistome in the rare microbiome. In summary, this study showed that an impressive diversity of self-transmissible multiple resistance plasmids was detected in bacteria associated with produce that is consumed raw, and exogenous capturing into E. coli suggests that they could transfer to gut bacteria as well.IMPORTANCE Produce is one of the most popular food commodities. Unfortunately, leafy greens can be a reservoir of transferable antibiotic resistance genes. We found that IncF and IncI plasmids were the most prevalent plasmid types in E. coli isolates from produce. This study highlights the importance of the rare microbiome associated with produce as a source of antibiotic resistance genes that might escape cultivation-independent detection, yet may be transferred to human pathogens or commensals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Khald Blau
- Julius Kühn-Institut, Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Antje Bettermann
- Julius Kühn-Institut, Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Sven Jechalke
- Justus Liebig University Giessen, Institute for Phytopathology, Gießen, Germany
| | - Eva Fornefeld
- Julius Kühn-Institut, Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Braunschweig, Germany
| | - Yann Vanrobaeys
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
- Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
| | - Thibault Stalder
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
- Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
| | - Eva M Top
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
- Institute for Bioinformatics and Evolutionary Studies, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, USA
| | - Kornelia Smalla
- Julius Kühn-Institut, Federal Research Centre for Cultivated Plants, Braunschweig, Germany
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