Genetic recombination-mediated evolutionary interactions between phages of potential industrial importance and prophages of their hosts within or across the domains of Escherichia, Listeria, Salmonella, Campylobacter, and Staphylococcus.

Background: The in-depth understanding of the role of lateral genetic transfer (LGT) in phage-prophage interactions is essential to rationalizing phage applications for human and animal therapy, as well as for food and environmental safety. This in silico study aimed to detect LGT between phages of potential industrial importance and their hosts.

Methods: A large array of genetic recombination detection algorithms, implemented in SplitsTree and RDP4, was applied to detect LGT between various Escherichia, Listeria, Salmonella, Campylobacter, Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas, and Vibrio phages and their hosts.

In-silico analyses provide strong statistical evidence for intra-species recombination events of the gyrA and CmeABC operon loci contributing to the continued emergence of resistance to fluoroquinolones in natural populations of Campylobacter jejuni.

Objectives: The continued emergence of Campylobacter jejuni strains resistant to fluoroquinolones (FQs) has posed a significant threat to global public health, leading frequently to undesirable outcomes of human campylobacteriosis treatment. The molecular genetic mechanisms contributing to the increased retention of resistance to FQs in natural populations of this species, especially in antibiotic-free environments, are not clearly understood. This study aimed to determine whether genetic recombination could be such a mechanism.

Evolutionary analysis of rabies virus isolates from Georgia.

Genetic relationships between rabies virus (RABV) isolates recovered from dogs, jackals, and cattle in Georgia and their closest relatives were investigated by comparing their nucleoprotein (N) gene sequences. Multiple isolates from dogs and cattle were found to share identical N gene sequences, indicating a risk of dog-to-cattle rabies transmission in Georgia. Exhibiting population-selective sweeps, expansion, and genetic recombination, evolutionary analysis of Georgian RABV isolates (all belonging to the cosmopolitan clade) and isolates from Russia, Turkey, and elsewhere provided further evidence for coinfections with different rabies virus strains and transborder transmission.

Metagenomic and Recombination Analyses of Antimicrobial Resistance Genes from Recreational Waters of Black Sea Coastal Areas and Other Marine Environments Unveil Extensive Evidence for Their both Intrageneric and Intergeneric Transmission across Genetically Very Diverse Microbial Communities.

Microbial communities of marine coastal recreation waters have become large reservoirs of AMR genes (ARGs), contributing to the emergence and transmission of various zoonotic, foodborne and other infections that exhibit resistance to various antibiotics. Thus, it is highly imperative to determine ARGs assemblages as well as mechanisms and trajectories of their transmission across these microbial communities for our better understanding of the evolutionary trends of AMR (AMR). In this study, using metagenomics approaches, we screened for ARGs in recreation waters of the Black Sea coastal areas of the Batumi City (Georgia).

Bacteriophage-Mediated Risk Pathways Underlying the Emergence of Antimicrobial Resistance via Intrageneric and Intergeneric Recombination of Antibiotic Efflux Genes Across Natural populations of Human Pathogenic Bacteria.

Antimicrobial resistance continues to be a significant and growing threat to global public health, being driven by the emerging drug-resistant and multidrug-resistant strains of human and animal bacterial pathogens. While bacteriophages are generally known to be one of the vehicles of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs), it remains largely unclear how these organisms contribute to the dissemination of the genetic loci encoding for antibiotic efflux pumps, especially those that confer multidrug resistance, in bacteria. In this study, the in-silico recombination analyses provided strong statistical evidence for bacteriophage-mediated intra-species recombination of ARGs, encoding mainly for the antibiotic efflux proteins from the MF superfamily, as well as from the ABC and RND families, in Salmonella enterica, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus suis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Burkholderia pseudomallei.

Bi- and Multi-directional Gene Transfer in the Natural Populations of Polyvalent Bacteriophages, and Their Host Species Spectrum Representing Foodborne Versus Other Human and/or Animal Pathogens.

Unraveling the trends of phage-host versus phage-phage coevolution is critical for avoiding possible undesirable outcomes from the use of phage preparations intended for therapeutic, food safety or environmental safety purposes. We aimed to investigate a phenomenon of intergeneric recombination and its trajectories across the natural populations of phages predominantly linked to foodborne pathogens. The results from the recombination analyses, using a large array of the recombination detection algorithms imbedded in SplitsTree, RDP4, and Simplot software packages, provided strong evidence (fit: 100; P  ≤ 0.

Phage Transduction is Involved in the Intergeneric Spread of Antibiotic Resistance-Associated bla, mel, and tetM Loci in Natural Populations of Some Human and Animal Bacterial Pathogens.

The horizontal genetic transfer (HGT) of antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) mediated by species-specific bacteriophages contributes to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant strains in natural populations of human and animal bacterial pathogens posing a significant threat to global public health. However, it is unclear and needs to be determined whether polyvalent bacteriophages play any role in the intergeneric transmission of ARGs. In this study, we examined the genome sequences of 2239 bacteriophages from different sources for the presence of ARGs.

How important is patient-to-patient transmission in extended-spectrum beta-lactamase Escherichia coli acquisition.

Background: Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli is an emerging pathogen. The causal role of antibiotic selective pressure versus patient-to-patient transmission has not been assessed. The objective of this study was to quantify the amount of patient-to-patient transmission among patients who acquire an ESBL-producing E coli infection using perianal surveillance cultures in an intensive care unit (ICU) population.

Multilocus sequence typing for studying genetic relationships among Yersinia species.

The intra- and interspecies genetic relationships of 58 strains representing all currently known species of the genus Yersinia were examined by multilocus sequence typing (MLST), using sequence data from 16S RNA, glnA, gyrB, recA, and Y-HSP60 loci. Yersinia aldovae, Y. bercovieri, Y.

Multilocus sequence typing versus pulsed-field gel electrophoresis for characterization of extended-spectrum beta-lactamase-producing Escherichia coli isolates.

Extended-spectrum beta-lactamase (ESBL)-producing Escherichia coli strains are emerging pathogens. Molecular typing of ESBL-producing E. coli is useful for surveillance purposes, to monitor outbreaks and track nosocomial spread.

Comparative analysis of multilocus sequence typing and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis for characterizing Listeria monocytogenes strains isolated from environmental and clinical sources.

One hundred seventy-five Listeria monocytogenes strains were characterized by serotyping, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) based on loci in actA, betL, hlyA, gyrB, pgm, and recA. One hundred twenty-two sequence types (STs) were identified by MLST based on allelic profiles of the four housekeeping genes (betL, gyrB, pgm, and recA), and 34 and 38 alleles were identified for hlyA and actA, respectively. Several actA and hlyA alleles appeared to be predominantly associated with clinical isolates.

Multilocus sequence typing has better discriminatory ability for typing Vibrio cholerae than does pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and provides a measure of phylogenetic relatedness.

Twenty-two Vibrio cholerae isolates, including some from "epidemic" (O1 and O139) and "nonepidemic" serogroups, were characterized by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multilocus sequence typing (MLST) by using three housekeeping genes, gyrB, pgm, and recA; sequence data were also obtained for the virulence-associated genes tcpA, ctxA, and ctxB. Even with the small number of loci used, MLST had better discriminatory ability than did PFGE. On MLST analysis, there was clear clustering of epidemic serogroups; much greater diversity was seen among tcpA- and ctxAB-positive V.

Comparative genomic analyses of the vibrio pathogenicity island and cholera toxin prophage regions in nonepidemic serogroup strains of Vibrio cholerae.

Two major virulence factors are associated with epidemic strains (O1 and O139 serogroups) of Vibrio cholerae: cholera toxin encoded by the ctxAB genes and toxin-coregulated pilus encoded by the tcpA gene. The ctx genes reside in the genome of a filamentous phage (CTXphi), and the tcpA gene resides in a vibrio pathogenicity island (VPI) which has also been proposed to be a filamentous phage designated VPIphi. In order to determine the prevalence of horizontal transfer of VPI and CTXphi among nonepidemic (non-O1 and non-O139 serogroups) V.

Multilocus sequence typing for characterization of clinical and environmental salmonella strains.

Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) based on the 16S RNA, pduF, glnA, and manB genes was developed for Salmonella, and its discriminatory ability was compared to those of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and serotyping. PFGE differentiated several strains undifferentiable by serotyping, and 78 distinct PFGE types were identified among 231 Salmonella isolates grouped into 22 serotypes and 12 strains of undetermined serotype. The strains of several PFGE types were further differentiated by MLST, which suggests that the discriminatory ability of MLST for the typing of Salmonella is better than that of serotyping and/or PFGE typing.