Abstract
Arcobacter (A.) butzleri is an emerging pathogenic microorganism, whose taxonomy has been recently suggested to be emended to the Aliarcobacter (Al.) butzleri comb. nov. Despite extensive taxonomic analysis, only few fragmented studies have investigated the occurrence and the prevalence of virulence and antibiotic resistance determinants of this species in strains isolated from shellfish. Herein we report for the first time the whole genome sequencing and genomic characterization of two A. butzleri strains isolated from shellfish, with particular reference to the antibiotic, heavy metals and virulence determinants. This study supported the taxonomic assignment of these strains to the Al. butzleri species, and allowed us to identify antibiotic and metal resistance along with virulence determinants, also additional to those previously reported for the only two A. butzleri strains from different environments genomically characterized. Moreover, both strains showed resistance to β-lactams, vanocomycin, tetracycline and erythromycin and susceptibility to aminoglycosides and ciprofloxacin. Beside enlarging the availability of genomic data to perform comparative studies aimed at correlating phenotypic differences associated with ecological niche and geographic distribution with the genetic diversity of A. butzleri spp., this study reports the endowment of antibiotic and heavy metal resistance and virulence determinants of these shellfish-isolated strains. This leads to hypothesize a relatively high virulence of A. butzleri isolated from shellfish and prompt the need for a wider genomic analysis and for in vitro and in vivo studies of more strains isolated from this and other ecological niches, to unravel the mechanism of pathogenicity of this species, and the potential risk associated to their consumption.
Highlights
IntroductionThe current validated taxonomy places the Arcobacter genus within the Campylobacteraceae family (belonging to the class Epsilonproteobacteria of the phylum Proteobacteria) together with Campylobacter and Sulfurospirillum genera
The current validated taxonomy places the Arcobacter genus within the Campylobacteraceae family together with Campylobacter and Sulfurospirillum genera
Considering that contaminated shellfish may be source of A. butzleri infection and given that the prevalence and expression of putative virulence and antibiotic resistance genes within this species may vary with the source of the strain (Douidah et al, 2012; Ferreira et al, 2014b; Girbau et al, 2015; Zacharow et al, 2015a), we report the antibiotic susceptibility and genomic-based characterization of two A. butzleri strains isolated from shellfish, with particular reference to the genetic determinants of the above mentioned traits of pathogenicity
Summary
The current validated taxonomy places the Arcobacter genus within the Campylobacteraceae family (belonging to the class Epsilonproteobacteria of the phylum Proteobacteria) together with Campylobacter and Sulfurospirillum genera. Four species (namely, A. butzleri, A. cryaerophilus, A. thereius, and A. skirrowii) have been isolated in humans and animals (Banting and Figueras Salvat, 2017) and are able to cause human bacteraemia, endocarditis, peritonitis, gastroenteritis, and diarrhea (Jiang et al, 2010; Figueras et al, 2014; Arguello et al, 2015; Ferreira et al, 2016) To date this genus includes 26 species (Ramees et al, 2017; Pérez-Cataluña et al, 2018a), which inhabit various ecological niches (Collado and Figueras, 2011; Ferreira et al, 2016). This genus comprises seven species including Aliarcobacter (Al.) butzleri comb. nov., whose type strain was confirmed to be LMG 10828T (ATCC 49616T; RM4018; Miller et al, 2007), and the species description as the one given by Vandamme et al (1992) and Pérez-Cataluña et al (2018a,b)
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