Genomic surveillance reveals antibiotic resistance gene transmission via phage recombinases within sheep mastitis-associated Streptococcus uberis

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Vezina, Ben
Rosa, Maria Nives
Canu, Antonella
Tola, Sebastiana
Griffith University Author(s)
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2022
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Abstract

Background: Streptococcus uberis is one of the main causative agents of ovine mastitis, however little is known about this global, environmental pathogen and its genomic mechanisms of disease. In this study, we performed genomic analysis on 46 S. uberis isolates collected from mastitis-infected sheep in Sardinia (Italy). Results: Genomes were assigned into lineage clusters using PopPUNK, which found 27 distinct isolate clusters, indicating considerable genetic variability consistent with environmental isolates. Geographic trends were identified including regional linkage of several isolate clusters. Multi-locus Sequence Typing (MLST) performed poorly and provided no new insights. Genomes were then screened for antimicrobial resistance genes, which were compared to phenotypic resistance profiles. Isolates showed consistent phenotypic resistance to aminoglycosides with variable resistance to novobiocin and tetracycline. In general, identification of antimicrobial resistance genes did not correlate with phenotypic resistance profiles, indicating unknown genetic determinants. A multi-antimicrobial resistance cassette (aminoglycoside, lincosamide and streptogramin) was identified in the chromosome of three genomes, flanked by vestigial phage recombinases. This locus appears to have spread horizontally within discrete S. uberis populations within a 40 km radius (Sassari region). Genomes were screened for putative virulence factors, which identified 16 genes conserved between sheep and cow isolates, with no host-specific genes shared uniformly across all host-specific isolates. Pangenomic analysis was then performed to identify core genes which were putatively surface-exposed, for identification of potential vaccine targets. As all genomes encoded sortase, core genes were screened for the sortase cleavage motif. Of the 1445 core S. uberis genes, 64 were putative sortase substrates and were predominantly adhesins, permeases and peptidases, consistent with compounds found within ruminant milk such as xanthine, fibronectin and lactoferrin. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the importance of whole genome sequencing for surveillance of S. uberis and tracking horizontal acquisition of antimicrobial resistance genes, as well as providing insight into genetic determinants of disease, which cannot be inferred from the MLST schemes. Future mastitis surveillance should be informed by genomic analysis.

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BMC Veterinary Research

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18

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© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.

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Veterinary sciences

Science & Technology

Life Sciences & Biomedicine

Veterinary Sciences

Streptococcus uberis

Whole-genome sequencing

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Vezina, B; Rosa, MN; Canu, A; Tola, S, Genomic surveillance reveals antibiotic resistance gene transmission via phage recombinases within sheep mastitis-associated Streptococcus uberis, BMC Veterinary Research, 2022, 18, pp. 264

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