New Genotype of Yersinia pestis Found in Live Rodents in Yunnan Province, China

• Published in: Frontiers in microbiology 2021-04, Vol.12, p.628335-628335
• Main Authors: Shi, Liyuan, Qin, Jingliang, Zheng, Hongyuan, Guo, Ying, Zhang, Haipeng, Zhong, Youhong, Yang, Chao, Dong, Shanshan, Yang, Fengyi, Wu, Yarong, Zhao, Guangyu, Song, Yajun, Yang, Ruifu, Wang, Peng, Cui, Yujun
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: iron content; live rodent; low virulence; Microbiology; pathogenicity; Yersinia pestis
• ISSN: 1664-302X; 1664-302X
• DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2021.628335

Yunnan Province, China is thought to be the original source of biovar Orientalis of , the causative agent of the third plague pandemic that has spread globally since the end of the 19th century. Although encompassing a large area of natural plague foci, strains have rarely been found in live rodents during surveillance in Yunnan, and most isolates are from rodent corpses and their fleas. In 2017, 10 strains were isolated from seven live rodents and three fleas in Heqing County of Yunnan. These strains were supposed to have low virulence to local rodents and because the rodents were healthy and no dead animals were found in surrounding areas, as had occurred in previous epizootic disease. We performed microscopic and biochemical examinations of the isolates, and compared their whole-genome sequences and transcriptome with those of 10 high virulence strains that were isolated from nine rodents and one parasitic flea in adjacent city (Lijiang). We analyzed the phenotypic, genomic, and transcriptomic characteristics of live rodent isolates. The isolates formed a previously undefined monophyletic branch of that was named 1.IN5. Six SNPs, two indels, and one copy number variation were detected between live rodent isolates and the high virulence neighbors. No obvious functional consequence of these variations was found according to the known annotation information. Among genes which expression differential in the live rodent isolates compared to their high virulent neighbors, we found five iron transfer related ones that were significant up-regulated (| log (FC) | > 1, p.adjust < 0.05), indicating these genes may be related to the low-virulence phenotype. The novel genotype of reported here provides further insights into the evolution and spread of plague as well as clues that may help to decipher the virulence mechanism of this notorious pathogen.