Abstract
Strains of Vibrio navarrensis are present in aquatic environments like seawater, rivers, and sewage. Recently, strains of this species were identified in human clinical specimens. In this study, V. navarrensis strains isolated from livestock in Germany were characterized that were found in aborted fetuses and/or placentas after miscarriages. The veterinary strains were analyzed using phenotypical and genotypical methods and compared to isolates from marine environments of the Baltic Sea and North Sea. The investigated phenotypical traits were similar in all German strains. Whole genome sequencing (WGS) was used to evaluate a phylogenetic relationship by performing a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis. For the SNP analysis, WGS data of two American human pathogenic strains and two Spanish environmental isolates from sewage were included. A phylogenetic analysis of concatenated sequences of five protein-coding housekeeping genes (gyrB, pyrH, recA, atpA, and rpoB), was additionally performed. Both phylogenetic analyses reveal a greater distance of the environmental seawater strains to the other strains. The phylogenetic tree constructed from concatenated sequences of housekeeping genes places veterinary, human pathogenic and Spanish sewage strains into one cluster. Presence and absence of virulence-associated genes were investigated based on WGS data and confirmed by PCR. However, this analysis showed no clear pattern for the potentially pathogenic strains. The detection of V. navarrensis in human clinical specimens strongly suggests that this species should be regarded as a potential human pathogen. The identification of V. navarrensis strains in domestic animals implicates a zoonotic potential of this species. This could indicate a potential threat for humans, as according to the “One Health” concept, human, animal, and environmental health are linked. Future studies are necessary to search for reservoirs of these bacteria in the environment and/or in living organisms.
Highlights
Vibrio navarrensis was first described as a species isolated from sewage and river water in the Spanish province Navarra in 1991 (Urdaci et al, 1991)
The sequences of an 871 bp internal fragment of the coding sequence of the rpoB gene were identified for all isolates of this study. rpoB sequences of two Spanish environmental V. navarrensis strains [CIP 103381 and 2232] and two human pathogenic strains (0053-83 and 08-2462; Gladney et al, 2014) available in public databases were included for the construction of a phylogenetic tree (Figure 1B)
With the exception of two strains, the identity of the sequences of most V. navarrensis strains was greater than 98% in the sequenced region of 871 bp
Summary
Vibrio navarrensis was first described as a species isolated from sewage and river water in the Spanish province Navarra in 1991 (Urdaci et al, 1991). Some strains from the Baltic Sea were reported that differed in some biochemical reactions to the Spanish strains. All V. navarrensis strains showed hemolytic activity on blood agar containing different types of erythrocytes, e.g., human, sheep, horse or cattle blood cells (Jores et al, 2003, 2007). In 2014, the characterization of V. navarrensis isolates associated with human illness was reported in a publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia (Gladney and Tarr, 2014). By applying multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA), the strains could be placed in a phylogenetic framework and were assigned to the species V. navarrensis (Gladney and Tarr, 2014)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
