Abstract
BackgroundHafnia alvei is an opportunistic pathogen involved in various types of nosocomical infections. The species has been found to inhabit food and mammalian guts. However, its status as an enteropathogen, and whether the food-inhabiting strains could be a source of gastrointestinal infection remains obscure. In this report we present a draft genome of H. alvei strain FB1 isolated from fish paste meatball, a food popular among Malaysian and Chinese populations. The data was generated on the Illumina MiSeq platform.ResultsA comparative study was carried out on FB1 against two other previously sequenced H. alvei genomes. Several gene clusters putatively involved in survival and pathogenesis of H. alvei FB1 in food and gut environment were characterised in this study. These include the widespread colonisation island (WCI), the tad locus that is known to play an essential role in biofilm formation, a eut operon that might contribute to advantage in nutrient acquisition in gut environment, and genes responsible for siderophore production This features enable the bacteria to successful colonise in the host gut environment.ConclusionWith the whole genome data of H. alvei FB1 presented in this study, we hope to provide an insight into future studies on this candidate of enteropathogen by looking into the possible mechanisms employed to survive stresses and gain advantage in competitions, which eventually leads to successful colonisation and pathogenesis. This is to serve as the basis for more effective clinical diagnosis and treatment.
Highlights
Hafnia alvei is an opportunistic pathogen involved in various types of nosocomical infections
Hafnia alvei is a flagellated, motile, facultative anaerobic opportunistic pathogen of the Enterobacteriaceae family, which is known to play a role in microbial food spoilage [1]
Apart from that, H. alvei has been commonly found to be present in abundance within communities of N-acyl homoserine lactone (AHL)-producing food spoilers [1,4]
Summary
Hafnia alvei is an opportunistic pathogen involved in various types of nosocomical infections. Its status as an enteropathogen, and whether the food-inhabiting strains could be a source of gastrointestinal infection remains obscure. In this report we present a draft genome of H. alvei strain FB1 isolated from fish paste meatball, a food popular among Malaysian and Chinese populations. Hafnia alvei is a flagellated, motile, facultative anaerobic opportunistic pathogen of the Enterobacteriaceae family, which is known to play a role in microbial food spoilage [1]. This species has been isolated from a wide range of nosocomical infections, including septicaemia, as well as respiratory, enteric, and urinary tract infections [2,3]. It is of importance to find out that if this common microbial contaminant of food could be a source of gut infection
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