1. Genomic and molecular characterisation of Escherichia marmotae from wild rodents in Qinghai-Tibet plateau as a potential pathogen
- Author
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Dong Jin, Yanwen Xiong, Jing Yang, Jie Feng, Xiaochen Du, Shan Lu, Sha Liu, Xiangli Meng, Ji Pu, Hui Sun, Changyun Ye, Xia Luo, Yiting Wang, Jianguo Xu, Ruiting Lan, and Xuefang Xu
- Subjects
Escherichia ,0301 basic medicine ,China ,Virulence Factors ,Virulence ,lcsh:Medicine ,Human pathogen ,Yersinia ,Tibet ,medicine.disease_cause ,Article ,Microbiology ,Type three secretion system ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,medicine ,Animals ,Humans ,Shigella ,lcsh:Science ,Pathogen ,Bacterial genomics ,Phylogeny ,Disease Reservoirs ,Multidisciplinary ,Shiga-Toxigenic Escherichia coli ,Type II secretion system ,biology ,lcsh:R ,Enterobacteriaceae Infections ,Bacteriology ,Sequence Analysis, DNA ,Bacterial pathogenesis ,biology.organism_classification ,030104 developmental biology ,Yersinia pestis ,Marmota ,lcsh:Q ,Genome, Bacterial ,030217 neurology & neurosurgery - Abstract
Wildlife is a reservoir of emerging infectious diseases of humans and domestic animals. Marmota himalayana mainly resides 2800–4000 m above sea level in the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, and is the primary animal reservoir of plague pathogen Yersinia pestis. Recently we isolated a new species, Escherichia marmotae from the faeces of M. himalayana. In this study we characterised E. marmotae by genomic analysis and in vitro virulence testing to determine its potential as a human pathogen. We sequenced the genomes of the seven E. marmotae strains and found that they contained a plasmid that carried a Shigella-like type III secretion system (T3SS) and their effectors, and shared the same O antigen gene cluster as Shigella dysenterae 8 and E. coli O38. We also showed that E. marmotae was invasive to HEp-2 cells although it was much less invasive than Shigella. Thus E. marmotae is likely to be an invasive pathogen. However, E. marmotae has a truncated IpaA invasin, and lacks the environmental response regulator VirF and the IcsA-actin based intracellular motility, rendering it far less invasive in comparison to Shigella. E. marmotae also carried a diverse set of virulence factors in addition to the T3SS, including an IS1414 encoded enterotoxin gene astA with 37 copies, E. coli virulence genes lifA/efa, cif, and epeA, and the sfp gene cluster, Yersinia T3SS effector yopJ, one Type II secretion system and two Type VI secretion systems. Therefore, E. marmotae is a potential invasive pathogen.
- Published
- 2019