Interspecies transmission of cmy-2-producing escherichia coli sequence type 963 isolates between humans and gulls in Australia

Medvecky, M., Papagiannitsis, C. C., Wyrsch, E. R., Bitar, I., Cummins, M. L., Djordjevic, S. P. and Dolejska, M. (2022) Interspecies transmission of cmy-2-producing escherichia coli sequence type 963 isolates between humans and gulls in Australia. mSphere, 7(4), e0023822. (doi: 10.1128/msphere.00238-22) (PMID:35862807) (PMCID:PMC9429958)

Abstract

Escherichia coli sequence type 963 (ST963) is a neglected lineage closely related to ST38, a globally widespread extraintestinal pathogenic ST causing urinary tract infections (UTI) as well as sepsis in humans. Our current study aimed to improve the knowledge of this understudied ST by carrying out a comprehensive comparative analysis of whole-genome sequencing data consisting of 31 isolates from silver gulls in Australia along with another 80 genomes from public resources originating from geographically scattered regions. ST963 was notable for carriage of cephalosporinase gene blaCMY-2, which was identified in 99 isolates and was generally chromosomally encoded. ST963 isolates showed otherwise low carriage of antibiotic resistance genes, in contrast with the closely related E. coli ST38. We found considerable phylogenetic variability among international ST963 isolates (up to 11,273 single nucleotide polymorphisms [SNPs]), forming three separate clades. A major clade that often differed by 20 SNPs or less consisted of Australian isolates of both human and animal origin, providing evidence of zoonotic or zooanthropogenic transmission. There was a high prevalence of virulence F29:A-:B10 pUTI89-like plasmids within E. coli ST963 (n = 88), carried especially by less variable isolates exhibiting #1,154 SNPs. We characterized a novel 115,443-bp pUTI89-like plasmid, pCE2050_A, that carried a traS:IS5 insertion absent from pUTI89. Since IS5 was also present in a transposition unit bearing blaCMY-2 on chromosomes of ST963 strains, IS5 insertion into pUTI89 may enable mobilization of the blaCMY-2 gene from the chromosome/transposition unit to pUTI89 via homologous recombination.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: This work was supported by the Czech Science Foundation (18-23532S), Internal Grant Agency of University of Veterinary Sciences Brno (218/2021/FVHE) and CEITEC 2020-Central European Institute of Technology (LQ1601) from the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports within the National Programme for Sustainability II. This study was also supported by the Czech Health Research Council, by the Charles University Research Fund PROGRES (project no. Q39), and by project CZ.02.1. 01/0.0/ 0.0/16_019/0000787, “Fighting Infectious Diseases,” provided by the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports of the Czech Republic. This study was also partly funded by the Australian Centre for Genomic Epidemiological Microbiology (AusGEM), a collaborative research partnership between the NSW Department of Primary Industries and the University of Technology Sydney.
• Keywords: Molecular biology, microbiology.
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Medvecky, Dr Matej
• Authors: Medvecky, M., Papagiannitsis, C. C., Wyrsch, E. R., Bitar, I., Cummins, M. L., Djordjevic, S. P., and Dolejska, M.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Biodiversity, One Health & Veterinary Medicine
• Journal Name: mSphere
• Publisher: American Society for Microbiology
• ISSN: 2379-5042
• ISSN (Online): 2379-5042
• Published Online: 05 July 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 Medvecky et al.
• First Published: First published in mSphere 7(4): e0023822
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence