Physical mapping of Salmonella genomes

E. coli diversity: low in colorectal cancer

BACKGROUND

Escherichia coli are mostly commensals but also contain pathogenic lineages. It is largely unclear whether the commensal E. coli as the potential origins of pathogenic lineages may consist of monophyletic or polyphyletic populations, elucidation of which is expected to lead to novel insights into the associations of E. coli diversity with human health and diseases.

METHODS

Using genomic sequencing and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) techniques, we analyzed E. coli from the intestinal microbiota of three groups of healthy individuals, including preschool children, university students, and seniors of a longevity village, as well as colorectal cancer (CRC) patients, to probe the commensal E. coli populations for their diversity.

RESULTS

We delineated the 2280 fresh E. coli isolates from 185 subjects into distinct genome types (genotypes) by PFGE. The genomic diversity of the sampled E. coli populations was so high that a given subject may have multiple genotypes of E. coli, with the general diversity within a host going up from preschool children through university students to seniors. Compared to the healthy subjects, the CRC patients had the lowest diversity level among their E. coli isolates. Notably, E. coli isolates from CRC patients could suppress the growth of E. coli bacteria isolated from healthy controls under nutrient-limited culture conditions.

CONCLUSIONS

The coexistence of multiple E. coli lineages in a host may help create and maintain a microbial environment that is beneficial to the host. As such, the low diversity of E. coli bacteria may be associated with unhealthy microenvironment in the intestine and hence facilitate the pathogenesis of diseases such as CRC.

Distinct evolutionary origins of common multi-drug resistance phenotypes in Salmonella typhimurium DT104: a convergent process for adaptation under stress

Antimicrobial resistance makes pathogenic bacteria hard to control, but little is known about the general processes of resistance gain or loss. Here, we compared distinct S. typhimurium DT104 strains resistant to zero, two, five, or more of the tested antimicrobials. We found that common resistance phenotypes could be encoded by distinct genes, on SGI-1 or plasmid. We also demonstrated close clonality among all the tested non-resistant and differently resistant DT104 strains, demonstrating dynamic acquisition or loss (by total deletion or gradual decaying of multi-drug resistance gene clusters) of the genetic traits. These findings reflect convergent processes to make the bacteria resistant to multiple antimicrobials by acquiring the needed traits from stochastically available origins. When the antimicrobial stress is absent, the resistance genes may be dropped off quickly, so the bacteria can save the cost for maintaining unneeded genes. Therefore, this work reiterates the importance of strictly controlled use of antimicrobials.

Differential degeneration of the ACTAGT sequence among Salmonella: a reflection of distinct nucleotide amelioration patterns during bacterial divergence

When bacteria diverge, they need to adapt to the new environments, such as new hosts or different tissues of the same host, by accumulating beneficial genomic variations, but a general scenario is unknown due to the lack of appropriate methods. Here we profiled the ACTAGT sequence and its degenerated forms (i.e., hexa-nucleotide sequences with one of the six nucleotides different from ACTAGT) in Salmonella to estimate the nucleotide amelioration processes of bacterial genomes. ACTAGT was mostly located in coding sequences but was also found in several intergenic regions, with its degenerated forms widely scattered throughout the bacterial genomes. We speculated that the distribution of ACTAGT and its degenerated forms might be lineage-specific as a consequence of different selection pressures imposed on ACTAGT at different genomic locations (in genes or intergenic regions) among different Salmonella lineages. To validate this speculation, we modelled the secondary structures of the ACTAGT-containing sequences conserved across Salmonella and many other enteric bacteria. Compared to ACTAGT at conserved regions, the degenerated forms were distributed throughout the bacterial genomes, with the degeneration patterns being highly similar among bacteria of the same phylogenetic lineage but radically different across different lineages. This finding demonstrates biased amelioration under distinct selection pressures among the bacteria and provides insights into genomic evolution during bacterial divergence.

CTAG-containing cleavage site profiling to delineate Salmonella into natural clusters

Background

The bacterial genus Salmonella contains thousands of serotypes that infect humans or other hosts, causing mild gastroenteritis to potentially fatal systemic infections in humans. Pathogenically distinct Salmonella serotypes have been classified as individual species or as serological variants of merely one or two species, causing considerable confusion in both research and clinical settings. This situation reflects a long unanswered question regarding whether the Salmonella serotypes exist as discrete genetic clusters (natural species) of organisms or as phenotypic (e.g. pathogenic) variants of a single (or two) natural species with a continuous spectrum of genetic divergence among them. Our recent work, based on genomic sequence divergence analysis, has demonstrated that genetic boundaries exist among Salmonella serotypes, circumscribing them into clear-cut genetic clusters of bacteria.

Methodologies/Principal Findings

To further test the genetic boundary concept for delineating Salmonella into clearly defined natural lineages (e.g., species), we sampled a small subset of conserved genomic DNA sequences, i.e., the endonuclease cleavage sites that contain the highly conserved CTAG sequence such as TCTAGA for XbaI. We found that the CTAG-containing cleavage sequence profiles could be used to resolve the genetic boundaries as reliably and efficiently as whole genome sequence comparisons but with enormously reduced requirements for time and resources.

Conclusions

Profiling of CTAG sequence subsets reflects genetic boundaries among Salmonella lineages and can delineate these bacteria into discrete natural clusters.

Differential efficiency in exogenous DNA acquisition among closely related Salmonella strains: implications in bacterial speciation

Background

Acquisition of exogenous genetic material is a key event in bacterial speciation. It seems reasonable to assume that recombination of the incoming DNA into genome would be more efficient with higher levels of relatedness between the DNA donor and recipient. If so, bacterial speciation would be a smooth process, leading to a continuous spectrum of genomic divergence of bacteria, which, however, is not the case as shown by recent findings. The goal of this study was todetermine if DNA transfer efficiency is correlated with the levels of sequence identity.

Results

To compare the relative efficiency of exogenous DNA acquisition among closely related bacteria, we carried out phage-mediated transduction and plasmid-mediated transformation in representative Salmonella strains with different levels of relatedness. We found that the efficiency was remarkably variable even among genetically almost identical bacteria. Although there was a general tendency that more closely related DNA donor-recipient pairs had higher transduction efficiency, transformation efficiency exhibited over a thousand times difference among the closely related Salmonella strains.

Conclusion

DNA acquisition efficiency is greatly variable among bacteria that have as high as over 99% identical genetic background, suggesting that bacterial speciation involves highly complex processes affected not only by whether beneficial exogenous DNA may exist in the environment but also the “readiness” of the bacteria to accept it.

Genomic comparison of Salmonella typhimurium DT104 with non-DT104 strains

DT104 emerged as a new branch of Salmonella typhimurium with resistance to multiple antimicrobials. To reveal some general genomic features of DT104 for clues of evolutionary events possibly associated with the emergence of this relatively new type of this pathogen, we mapped 11 independent DT104 strains and compared them with non-DT104 S. typhimurium strains. We found that all 11 DT104 strains contained three insertions absent in non-DT104 strains, i.e., the previously reported ST104, ST104B and ST64B. However, SGI-1, a genomic island known to be responsible for DT104 multidrug resistance, was not present in all DT104 strains examined in this study: one DT104 strain did not contain SGI-1 but carried a 144 kb plasmid, suggesting possible evolutionary relationships between the two DNA elements in the development of antimicrobial resistance.

Genetic boundaries to delineate the typhoid agent and other Salmonella serotypes into distinct natural lineages

The deadly human typhoid agent was initially classified as a species called Salmonella typhi but later reclassified as a serovar of Salmonella enterica together with other pathogenically diverse serovars. The dynamic changes of Salmonella taxonomy reflect the need to clarify the phylogenetic status of the Salmonella serovars: are they discrete lineages or variants of a genetic lineage? To answer this question, we compared S. typhi and other Salmonella serotypes. We found that the S. typhi and Salmonella typhimurium strains had over 90% and ca. 80%, respectively, of their genes identical; however, between S. typhi and S. typhimurium, this percentage dropped to 6%, suggesting the existence of genetic boundaries between them. We conclude that S. typhi and the other compared Salmonella serovars have developed into distinct lineages circumscribed by the genetic boundary. This concept and methods may be used to delineate other Salmonella serotypes, many of which are polyphyletic, needing differentiation.

Defining natural species of bacteria: clear-cut genomic boundaries revealed by a turning point in nucleotide sequence divergence

BACKGROUND

Bacteria are currently classified into arbitrary species, but whether they actually exist as discrete natural species was unclear. To reveal genomic features that may unambiguously group bacteria into discrete genetic clusters, we carried out systematic genomic comparisons among representative bacteria.

RESULTS

We found that bacteria of Salmonella formed tight phylogenetic clusters separated by various genetic distances: whereas over 90% of the approximately four thousand shared genes had completely identical sequences among strains of the same lineage, the percentages dropped sharply to below 50% across the lineages, demonstrating the existence of clear-cut genetic boundaries by a steep turning point in nucleotide sequence divergence. Recombination assays supported the genetic boundary hypothesis, suggesting that genetic barriers had been formed between bacteria of even very closely related lineages. We found similar situations in bacteria of Yersinia and Staphylococcus.

CONCLUSIONS

Bacteria are genetically isolated into discrete clusters equivalent to natural species.

Identification of genes to differentiate closely related Salmonella lineages

Background

Salmonella are important human and animal pathogens. Though highly related, the Salmonella lineages may be strictly adapted to different hosts or cause different diseases, from mild local illness like gastroenteritis to fatal systemic infections like typhoid. Therefore, rapid and accurate identification of Salmonella is essential for timely and correct diagnosis of Salmonella infections. The current identification methods such as 16S rRNA sequencing and multilocus sequence typing are expensive and time consuming. Additionally, these methods often do not have sufficient distinguishing resolution among the Salmonella lineages.

Methodologies/Principal Findings

We compared 27 completely sequenced Salmonella genomes to identify possible genomic features that could be used for differentiation of individual lineages. We concatenated 2372 core genes in each of the 27 genomes and constructed a neighbor-joining tree. On the tree, strains of each serotype were clustered tightly together and different serotypes were unambiguously separated with clear genetic distances, demonstrating systematic genomic divergence among the Salmonella lineages. We made detailed comparisons among the 27 genomes and identified distinct sets of genomic differences, including nucleotide variations and genomic islands (GIs), among the Salmonella lineages. Two core genes STM4261 and entF together could unambiguously distinguish all Salmonella lineages compared in this study. Additionally, strains of a lineage have a common set of GIs and closely related lineages have similar sets of GIs.

Conclusions

Salmonella lineages have accumulated distinct sets of mutations and laterally acquired DNA (e.g., GIs) in evolution. Two genes entF and STM4261 have diverged sufficiently among the Salmonella lineages to be used for their differentiation. Further investigation of the distinct sets of mutations and GIs will lead to novel insights into genomic evolution of Salmonella and greatly facilitate the elucidation of pathogeneses of Salmonella infections.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates of distinct sub-genotypes exhibit similar potential of antimicrobial resistance by drugs exposure

Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a wide-spread opportunistic pathogen, often complicates clinical treatments due to its resistance to a large variety of antimicrobials, especially in immune compromised patients, occasionally leading to death. However, the resistance to antimicrobials varies greatly among the P. aeruginosa isolates, which raises a question on whether some sub-lineages of P. aeruginosa might have greater potential to develop antimicrobial resistance than others. To explore this question, we divided 160 P. aeruginosa isolates collected from cities of USA and China into distinct genotypes using I-CeuI, a special endonuclease that had previously been proven to reveal phylogenetic relationships among bacteria reliably due to the highly conserved 26-bp recognition sequence. We resolved 10 genotypes by I-CeuI analysis and further divided them into 82 sub-genotypes by endonuclease cleavage with SpeI. Eight of the 10 genotypes contained both multi-drug resistant (MDR) and less resistant isolates based on comparisons of their antimicrobial resistance profiles (ARPs). When the less resistant or susceptible isolates from different genotypes were exposed to eight individual antimicrobials, they showed similar potential to become resistant with minor exceptions. This is to our knowledge the first report to examine correlations between phylogenetic sub-lineages of P. aeruginosa and their potential to become resistant to antimicrobials. This study further alerts the importance and urgency of antimicrobial abuse control.

Multiple genetic switches spontaneously modulating bacterial mutability

BACKGROUND

All life forms need both high genetic stability to survive as species and a degree of mutability to evolve for adaptation, but little is known about how the organisms balance the two seemingly conflicting aspects of life: genetic stability and mutability. The DNA mismatch repair (MMR) system is essential for maintaining genetic stability and defects in MMR lead to high mutability. Evolution is driven by genetic novelty, such as point mutation and lateral gene transfer, both of which require genetic mutability. However, normally a functional MMR system would strongly inhibit such genomic changes. Our previous work indicated that MMR gene allele conversion between functional and non-functional states through copy number changes of small tandem repeats could occur spontaneously via slipped-strand mis-pairing during DNA replication and therefore may play a role of genetic switches to modulate the bacterial mutability at the population level. The open question was: when the conversion from functional to defective MMR is prohibited, will bacteria still be able to evolve by accepting laterally transferred DNA or accumulating mutations?

RESULTS

To prohibit allele conversion, we "locked" the MMR genes through nucleotide replacements. We then scored changes in bacterial mutability and found that Salmonella strains with MMR locked at the functional state had significantly decreased mutability. To determine the generalizability of this kind of mutability 'switching' among a wider range of bacteria, we examined the distribution of tandem repeats within MMR genes in over 100 bacterial species and found that multiple genetic switches might exist in these bacteria and may spontaneously modulate bacterial mutability during evolution.

CONCLUSIONS

MMR allele conversion through repeats-mediated slipped-strand mis-pairing may function as a spontaneous mechanism to switch between high genetic stability and mutability during bacterial evolution.

Production of enterodiol from defatted flaxseeds through biotransformation by human intestinal bacteria

Background

The effects of enterolignans, e.g., enterodiol (END) and particularly its oxidation product, enterolactone (ENL), on prevention of hormone-dependent diseases, such as osteoporosis, cardiovascular diseases, hyperlipemia, breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer and menopausal syndrome, have attracted much attention. To date, the main way to obtain END and ENL is chemical synthesis, which is expensive and inevitably leads to environmental pollution. To explore a more economic and eco-friendly production method, we explored biotransformation of enterolignans from precursors contained in defatted flaxseeds by human intestinal bacteria.

Results

We cultured fecal specimens from healthy young adults in media containing defatted flaxseeds and detected END from the culture supernatant. Following selection through successive subcultures of the fecal microbiota with defatted flaxseeds as the only carbon source, we obtained a bacterial consortium, designated as END-49, which contained the smallest number of bacterial types still capable of metabolizing defatted flaxseeds to produce END. Based on analysis with pulsed field gel electrophoresis, END-49 was found to consist of five genomically distinct bacterial lineages, designated Group I-V, with Group I strains dominating the culture. None of the individual Group I-V strains produced END, demonstrating that the biotransformation of substrates in defatted flaxseeds into END is a joint work by different members of the END-49 bacterial consortium. Interestingly, Group I strains produced secoisolariciresinol, an important intermediate of END production; 16S rRNA analysis of one Group I strain established its close relatedness with Klebsiella. Genomic analysis is under way to identify all members in END-49 involved in the biotransformation and the actual pathway leading to END-production.

Conclusion

Biotransformation is a very economic, efficient and environmentally friendly way of mass-producing enterodiol from defatted flaxseeds.

A genome map of Salmonella enterica serovar Agona: numerous insertions and deletions reflecting the evolutionary history of a human pathogen

Salmonella enterica serovar Agona is an important zoonotic pathogen, causing serious human illness worldwide, but knowledge about its genetics and evolution, especially regarding the genomic events that might have contributed to the formation of S. Agona as an important pathogen, is lacking. As a first step toward understanding this pathogen and characterizing its genomic differences with other salmonellae, we constructed a physical map of S. Agona in strain SARB1 using I-CeuI, XbaI, AvrII and Tn10 insertions with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis techniques. On the 4815-kb genomic map, we located 82 genes, revealed one inversion of about 1000 kb and resolved seven deletions and seven insertions ranging from 10 to 67 kb relative to the genome of Salmonella typhimurium LT2. These genomic features clearly distinguish S. Agona from other previously analyzed salmonellae and provide clues to the molecular basis for its genomic divergence. Additionally, these kinds of physical maps, combined with emerging high-speed sequencing technologies, such as the Solexa or SOLiD techniques, which require a pre-existing high-resolution physical map such as the S. Agona map reported here, will play important roles in genomic comparative studies of bacteria involving large numbers of strains.

Spontaneous conversion between mutL and 6 bpΔmutL in Salmonella typhimurium LT7: Association with genome diversification and possible roles in bacterial adaptation

Previously, we reported the phenomenon of genome diversification in Salmonella typhimurium LT7, i.e., individual strains derived from LT7 kept changing the genome structure by inversions, translocations, duplications, and mutations. To elucidate the genetic basis, we sequenced selected genes of the mismatch repair (MMR) system for correlations between MMR defects and genome diversification. We chose S. typhimurium LT7 mutants 8111F2 and 9052D1 for mut gene sequence analyses and found that both mutants had a deletion of one of three tandem 6-bp repeats, GCTGGC GCTGGC GCTGGC, within mutL, which was designated 6 bpDeltamutL. mutS and mutH genes were unchanged in the mutants analyzed. Some sublines of 8111F2 and 9052D1 spontaneously stopped the genome diversification process at certain stages during single-colony restreaking passages, and in these strains the 6 bpDeltamutL genotype also became wild-type mutL. We conclude that conversion between mutL and 6 bpDeltamutL occurs spontaneously and that transient defects of mutL facilitate genome diversification without leading to the accumulation of multiple detrimental genetic changes. Spontaneous conversion between mutL and 6 bpDeltamutL may be an important mechanism used by bacteria to regulate genetic stability in adaptation to changing environments.