Comparative genomics of MRSA strains from human and canine origins reveals similar virulence gene repertoire

Bruno Penna,Fabienne A Ferreira,Agnes M S Figueiredo,Ana T R Vasconcelos,André E R Soares,Viviane S De Sousa,Viviane S De Souza,Maria C Silva-Carvalho,Ana M N Botelho,Paul J Planet,Marcella B Silva,Paula T Bandeira,Olney Vieira-Da-Motta,Renata F Rabello,Mariana S Ramundo

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-83993-5

Abstract

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is an important pathogen associated with a wide variety of infections in humans. The ability of MRSA to infect companion animals has gained increasing attention in the scientific literature. In this study, 334 dogs were screened for MRSA in two cities located in Rio de Janeiro State. The prevalence of MRSA in dogs was 2.7%. Genotyping revealed isolates from sequence types (ST) 1, 5, 30, and 239 either colonizing or infecting dogs. The genome of the canine ST5 MRSA (strain SA112) was compared with ST5 MRSA from humans—the main lineage found in Rio de Janeiro hospitals—to gain insights in the origin of this dog isolate. Phylogenetic analysis situated the canine genome and human strain CR14-035 in the same clade. Comparative genomics revealed similar virulence profiles for SA112 and CR14-035. Both genomes carry S. aureus genomic islands νSAα, νSAβ, and νSAγ. The virulence potential of the canine and human strains was similar in a Caenorhabditis elegans model. Together, these results suggest a potential of canine MRSA to infect humans and vice versa. The circulation in community settings of a MRSA lineage commonly found in hospitals is an additional challenge for public health surveillance authorities.

Highlights

Staphylococcus aureus is a common human pathogen involved in a wide variety of diseases
This work demonstrates that Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) isolates were detected among infected and colonized dogs in the state of Rio de Janeiro
The isolates recovered from those animals are related to the community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) international clones USA1100/OSPC (ST30-SCCmec IV) and USA400 (ST1-SCCmec IV) and to the hospital-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA) clones USA100/NY/ Japan (ST5-SCCmec II) and Brazilian epidemic clone (BEC) ST239-SCCmec III) that are commonly involved in human infections in Brazil and in other countries

Summary

Introduction

Staphylococcus aureus is a common human pathogen involved in a wide variety of diseases Infections caused by this agent range from skin and soft tissue infections to life-threatening bacteremia, endocarditis, osteomyelitis, and necrotizing p neumonia[1,2]. The high incidence of human infections caused by antimicrobial-resistant bacteria, especially methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), has led to an increased awareness related to the presence of resistant bacteria in domestic animals. From the one health perspective, domestic animals may serve as MRSA reservoirs in the community. To date, both hospital-associated MRSA (HA-MRSA) and community-associated MRSA (CA-MRSA) lineages have been identified in companion a nimals[6,7,8]. Because the ST5 lineage is emerging as the predominant MRSA in Rio de Janeiro hospitals[13], we sequenced the whole genome of human and canine isolates from the ST5 lineage to gain some insights into the origin of the canine ST5 MRSA

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