Implication of Lateral Genetic Transfer in the Emergence of Aeromonas hydrophila Isolates of Epidemic Outbreaks in Channel Catfish

To investigate the molecular basis of the emergence of Aeromonas hydrophila responsible for an epidemic outbreak of motile aeromonad septicemia of catfish in the Southeastern United States, we sequenced 11 A. hydrophila isolates that includes five reference and six recent epidemic isolates. Comparat...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2013-11, Vol.8 (11), p.e80943-e80943
Main Authors: Hossain, Mohammad J, Waldbieser, Geoffrey C, Sun, Dawei, Capps, Nancy K, Hemstreet, William B, Carlisle, Kristen, Griffin, Matt J, Khoo, Lester, Goodwin, Andrew E, Sonstegard, Tad S, Schroeder, Steven, Hayden, Karl, Newton, Joseph C, Terhune, Jeffery S, Liles, Mark R, Cloeckaert, Axel
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aeromonas
Aeromonas hydrophila
Aeromonas hydrophila - classification
Aeromonas hydrophila - genetics
Aeromonas hydrophila - isolation & purification
Aeromonas hydrophila - metabolism
Aeromonas hydrophila - virology
Animals
Aquaculture
biogenesis
Biosynthesis
Campylobacter
Campylobacter jejuni
carbon
Carbon sources
Catabolism
Catfish
Clusters
Comparative analysis
Computational Biology
Deoxyribonucleic acid
Disease
Disease Outbreaks
DNA
Emergence
Epidemics
fimbriae
Fish
Fish Diseases - epidemiology
Fish Diseases - microbiology
Fish Diseases - transmission
Fisheries
Fishes
Fitness
Gene clusters
Gene Order
Gene transfer
Gene Transfer, Horizontal
Genes
Genes, Bacterial
Genetic markers
Genetic research
Genome, Bacterial
Genomes
Genomic islands
Genomics
Genotype
horizontal gene transfer
Ictaluridae - microbiology
Ictalurus punctatus
Inositol
Laboratories
Metabolic Networks and Pathways
Molecular Sequence Data
Multigene Family
O Antigens - genetics
Outbreaks
Pathogenicity
Pathogenicity islands
Pathogens
Phenotype
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Prophages - genetics
Reproductive fitness
Septicemia
Veterinary medicine
Virulence
Virulence factors
Virulence Factors - genetics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:To investigate the molecular basis of the emergence of Aeromonas hydrophila responsible for an epidemic outbreak of motile aeromonad septicemia of catfish in the Southeastern United States, we sequenced 11 A. hydrophila isolates that includes five reference and six recent epidemic isolates. Comparative genomics revealed that recent epidemic A. hydrophila isolates are highly clonal, whereas reference isolates are greatly diverse. We identified 55 epidemic-associated genetic regions with 313 predicted genes that are present in epidemic isolates but absent from reference isolates and 35% of these regions are located within genomic islands, suggesting their acquisition through lateral gene transfer. The epidemic-associated regions encode predicted prophage elements, pathogenicity islands, metabolic islands, fitness islands and genes of unknown functions, and 34 of the genes encoded in these regions were predicted as virulence factors. We found two pilus biogenesis gene clusters encoded within predicted pathogenicity islands. A functional metabolic island that encodes a complete pathway for myo -inositol catabolism was evident by the ability of epidemic A. hydrophila isolates to use myo -inositol as a sole carbon source. Testing of A. hydrophila field isolates found a consistent correlation between myo -inositol utilization as a sole carbon source and the presence of an epidemic-specific genetic marker. All epidemic isolates and one reference isolate shared a novel O-antigen cluster. Altogether we identified four different O-antigen biosynthesis gene clusters within the 11 sequenced A. hydrophila genomes. Our study reveals new insights into the evolutionary changes that have resulted in the emergence of recent epidemic A. hydrophila strains.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0080943