Multi-Locus Sequence Typing of Bartonella henselae Isolates from Three Continents Reveals Hypervirulent and Feline-Associated Clones

Mardjan Arvand,Michael Giladi,Edward J Feil,Henri-Jean Boulouis,Juliane Viezens,Rosemary Redfield

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0001346

Mardjan Arvand, Michael Giladi + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0001346

Copy DOI

Abstract

Bartonella henselae is a zoonotic pathogen and the causative agent of cat scratch disease and a variety of other disease manifestations in humans. Previous investigations have suggested that a limited subset of B. henselae isolates may be associated with human disease. In the present study, 182 human and feline B. henselae isolates from Europe, North America and Australia were analysed by multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) to detect any associations between sequence type (ST), host species and geographical distribution of the isolates. A total of 14 sequence types were detected, but over 66% (16/24) of the isolates recovered from human disease corresponded to a single genotype, ST1, and this type was detected in all three continents. In contrast, 27.2% (43/158) of the feline isolates corresponded to ST7, but this ST was not recovered from humans and was restricted to Europe. The difference in host association of STs 1 (human) and 7 (feline) was statistically significant (P≤0.001). eBURST analysis assigned the 14 STs to three clonal lineages, which contained two or more STs, and a singleton comprising ST7. These groups were broadly consistent with a neighbour-joining tree, although splits decomposition analysis was indicative of a history of recombination. These data indicate that B. henselae lineages differ in their virulence properties for humans and contribute to a better understanding of the population structure of B. henselae.

Highlights

Bartonella henselae is a fastidious bacterium associated with a broad spectrum of clinical disease manifestations in humans, including cat scratch disease (CSD) and bacillary angiomatosis (BA)
Assignment of the B. henselae isolates to sequence type (ST)
A collection of 182 B. henselae isolates from 12 countries and three continents was analysed by multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) to elucidate i) the relationship between ST and host species, ii) the geographical distribution of STs, and iii) the phylogenetic relationship among different STs

Summary

Introduction

Bartonella henselae is a fastidious bacterium associated with a broad spectrum of clinical disease manifestations in humans, including cat scratch disease (CSD) and bacillary angiomatosis (BA). Infected animals develop relapsing bacteremia of several months duration without overt clinical symptoms [3]. The diagnosis of CSD and most other disease manifestations relies on detection of bacterial DNA in tissue specimens by PCR or serology [4,5,6]. Only few human-derived B. henselae isolates are available worldwide [7,8,9,10]. Bartonellae can be more isolated from the blood of infected cats. Feline isolates usually outnumber the human-derived isolates in investigations of the molecular epidemiology of B. henselae

Methods

Results

Conclusion