Tracing genomic variations in two highly virulent Yersinia enterocolitica strains with unequal ability to compete for host colonization

• Published in: BMC genomics 2012-09, Vol.13 (1), p.467-467, Article 467
• Main Authors: Garzetti, Debora, Bouabe, Hicham, Heesemann, Juergen, Rakin, Alexander
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Animal experimentation; Animals; Bacteriology; Coinfection; Deoxyribonucleic acid; Diversity; DNA; DNA sequencing; Experiments; Female; Genetic aspects; Genetic research; Genetic variation; Genome comparison; Genome, Bacterial - genetics; Genomes; Genomics; Health aspects; Host colonization; Hyper-virulent; Infection; Infections; Liver; Methods; Mice; Mice, Inbred C57BL; Microbiology; Molecular Sequence Data; Nucleotide sequencing; Plasmids; Proteins; Virulence (Microbiology); Virulence - genetics; Virulence factors; Virulence Factors - genetics; Virulence Factors - metabolism; Yersinia; Yersinia enterocolitica; Yersinia enterocolitica - genetics; Yersinia enterocolitica - metabolism; Yersinia enterocolitica - pathogenicity; Yersinia Infections - genetics; YopM; YscP
• ISSN: 1471-2164; 1471-2164
• DOI: 10.1186/1471-2164-13-467

Yersinia enterocolitica is a gastrointestinal foodborne pathogen found worldwide and which especially affects infants and young children. While different bioserotypes have been associated with varying pathogenicity, research on Y. enterocolitica is mainly conducted on the highly virulent mouse-lethal strains of biotype 1B and serotype O:8. We demonstrate here that two Y. enterocolitica bioserotype 1B/O:8 strains, 8081 and WA-314, display different virulence and fitness properties in a mouse model. In vivo co-infection experiments revealed that strain WA-314 overcomes strain 8081 in the colonization of spleen and liver. To trace the reasons of this incongruity, we present here the first high-quality sequence of the whole genome of strain WA-314 and compare it to the published genome of strain 8081. Regions previously accepted as unique to strain 8081, like the YAPI and YGI-3 genomic islands, are absent from strain WA-314, confirming their strain-specificity. On the other hand, some fitness- and bacterial competition-associated features, such as a putative colicin cluster and a xenobiotic-acyltransferase-encoding gene, are unique to strain WA-314. Additional acquisitions of strain WA-314 are seven prophage-like regions. One of these prophages, the 28-kb P4-like prophage YWA-4, encodes a PilV-like protein that may be used for adhesion to and invasion of the intestinal cells. Furthermore, a putative autotransporter and two type 1 fimbrial proteins of strain WA-314 show a sequence similarity