Machine Learning Potential for Identifying and Forecasting Complex Environmental Drivers of Infections in the United States.

Background: Environmental change in coastal areas can drive marine bacteria and resulting infections, such as those caused by , with both foodborne and nonfoodborne exposure routes and high mortality. Although ecological drivers of in the environment have been well-characterized, fewer models have been able to apply this to human infection risk due to limited surveillance.

Objectives: The Cholera and Other Illness Surveillance (COVIS) system database has reported infections in the United States since 1988, offering a unique opportunity to both explore the forecasting capabilities machine learning could provide and to characterize complex environmental drivers of infections.

Climate change and Vibrio vulnificus dynamics: A blueprint for infectious diseases.

Climate change is having increasingly profound effects on human health, notably those associated with the occurrence, distribution, and transmission of infectious diseases. The number of disparate ecological parameters and pathogens affected by climate change are vast and expansive. Disentangling the complex relationship between these variables is critical for the development of effective countermeasures against its effects.

Eco-Evolutionary Drivers of Vibrio parahaemolyticus Sequence Type 3 Expansion: Retrospective Machine Learning Approach.

Background: Environmentally sensitive pathogens exhibit ecological and evolutionary responses to climate change that result in the emergence and global expansion of well-adapted variants. It is imperative to understand the mechanisms that facilitate pathogen emergence and expansion, as well as the drivers behind the mechanisms, to understand and prepare for future pandemic expansions.

Objective: The unique, rapid, global expansion of a clonal complex of Vibrio parahaemolyticus (a marine bacterium causing gastroenteritis infections) named Vibrio parahaemolyticus sequence type 3 (VpST3) provides an opportunity to explore the eco-evolutionary drivers of pathogen expansion.

Identifying gene-level mechanisms of successful dispersal of during El Niño events.

El Niño events, the warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation, facilitate the movement of warm surface waters eastwards across the Pacific Ocean. Marine organisms transported by these waters can act as biological corridors for water-borne bacteria with attachment abilities. El Niño events have been hypothesized as driving the recent emergence of (Vp) variants, marine bacterium causing gastroenteritis, in South America, but the lack of a robust methodological framework limited any further exploration.

Evolutionary dynamics of the successful expansion of pandemic Vibrio parahaemolyticus ST3 in Latin America.

The underlying evolutionary mechanisms driving global expansions of pathogen strains are poorly understood. Vibrio parahaemolyticus is one of only two marine pathogens where variants have emerged in distinct climates globally. The success of a Vibrio parahaemolyticus clone (VpST3) in Latin America- the first spread identified outside its endemic region of tropical Asia- provided an invaluable opportunity to investigate mechanisms of VpST3 expansion into a distinct marine climate.

Pan-Genome Provides Insights into Vibrio Evolution and Adaptation to Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents.

This study delves into the genomic features of 10 Vibrio strains collected from deep-sea hydrothermal vents in the Pacific Ocean, providing insights into their evolutionary history and ecological adaptations. Through sequencing and pan-genome analysis involving 141 Vibrio species, we found that deep-sea strains exhibit larger genomes with unique gene distributions, suggesting adaptation to the vent environment. The phylogenomic reconstruction of the investigated isolates revealed the presence of 2 main clades: The first is monophyletic, consisting exclusively of Vibrio alginolyticus, while the second forms a monophyletic clade comprising both Vibrio antiquarius and Vibrio diabolicus species, which were previously isolated from deep-sea vents.

Stemming the rising tide of Vibrio disease.

Globally, the diverse bacterial genus Vibrio is the most important group of bacterial pathogens found in marine and coastal waters. These bacteria can cause an array of human infections via direct exposure to seawater or through the consumption of seafoods grown and cultivated in coastal and estuarine settings. Crucially, we appear to be on the cusp of an alarming global increase in Vibrio disease.

The 2023 report of the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: the imperative for a health-centred response in a world facing irreversible harms.

Unlabelled: The Countdown is an international research collaboration that independently monitors the evolving impacts of climate change on health, and the emerging health opportunities of climate action. In its eighth iteration, this 2023 report draws on the expertise of 114 scientists and health practitioners from 52 research institutions and UN agencies worldwide to provide its most comprehensive assessment yet. In 2022, the Countdown warned that people’s health is at the mercy of fossil fuels and stressed the transformative opportunity of jointly tackling the concurrent climate change, energy, cost-of-living, and health crises for human health and wellbeing.

Editorial overview: Novel approaches to gauge the human footprint on the biosphere.

Human disturbances are altering the biosphere in unprecedented ways. Yet, the precise picture of how these disturbances are altering the biosphere and the consequences for humans and the planet reamain undefined. The knowledge and tools to quantify these impacts are often dispersed across traditionally independent scientific disciplines.

Comparative Genomic Analyses of Virulence and Antimicrobial Resistance in , an Emerging Opportunistic Pathogen.

is an emerging and opportunistic human pathogen found in developing countries and is a causative agent of wound, urinary tract, and blood infections. The present study conducted comparative genomic analyses of a strain collection from diverse geographical locations and sources to identify the relevant virulence and antimicrobial resistance genes. Pangenome analyses divided the examined strains into five distinct clades; the subsequent classification identified genes with functional roles in carbohydrate and general metabolism for the core genome and genes with a role in secretion, adherence, and the mobilome for the shell and cloud genomes.

Comparative genomics uncovered differences between clinical and environmental populations of in New Zealand.

has been identified as an emerging human pathogen worldwide with cases undergoing a global expansion over recent decades in phase with climate change. New Zealand had remained free of outbreaks until 2019, but different outbreaks have been reported consecutively since then. To provide new insights into the recent emergence of cases associated with outbreak clones over recent years, a comparative genomic study was carried out using a selection of clinical (mostly outbreak) and environmental isolates of obtained in New Zealand between 1973 and 2021.

The emergence, impact, and evolution of human metapneumovirus variants from 2014 to 2021 in Spain.

Background: Human metapneumovirus (HMPV) is an important aetiologic agent of respiratory tract infection (RTI). This study aimed to describe the prevalence, genetic diversity, and evolutionary dynamics of HMPV.

Methods: Laboratory-confirmed HMPV were characterised based on partial-coding G gene sequences with MEGA.

Sea temperature influences accumulation of tetrodotoxin in British bivalve shellfish.

Tetrodotoxin (TTX), a potent neurotoxin mostly associated with pufferfish poisoning, is also found in bivalve shellfish. Recent studies into this emerging food safety threat reported TTX in a few, mainly estuarine, shellfish production areas in some European countries, including the United Kingdom. A pattern in occurrences has started to emerge, however the role of temperature on TTX has not been investigated in detail.

Genomic-wide analysis approach revealed genomic similarity for environmental Mexican . Oranienburg genomes.

As the human population grows, an increase in food trade is needed. This elevates the risk of epidemiological outbreaks. One of the prevalent pathogens associated with food production in Mexico has been Salmonella Oranienburg.

Vibrio parahaemolyticus Epidemiology and Pathogenesis: Novel Insights on an Emerging Foodborne Pathogen.

The epidemiological dynamics of V. parahaemolyticus´ infections have been characterized by the abrupt appearance of outbreaks in remote areas where these diseases had not been previously detected, without knowing the routes of entry of the pathogens in the new area. However, there are recent studies that show the link between the appearance of epidemic outbreaks of Vibrio and environmental factors such as oceanic transport of warm waters, which has provided a possible mechanism for the dispersion of Vibrio diseases globally.

Vibrio Infections and the Twenty-First Century.

The Vibrionaceae is a highly diverse family of aquatic bacteria. Some members of this ubiquitous group can cause a variety of diseases in humans ranging from cholera caused by Vibrio cholerae, severe septicemia caused by Vibrio vulnificus, to acute gastroenteritis by Vibrio parahaemolyticus. Planet Earth is experiencing unprecedented changes of planetary scale associated with climate change.

Large-scale impact of the 2016 Marine Heatwave on the plankton-associated microbial communities of the Great Barrier Reef (Australia).

The Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is the world's largest coral ecosystem and is threatened by climate change. This study investigated the impact of the 2016 Marine Heatwave (MHW) on plankton associated microbial communities along a ∼800 km transect in the GBR. 16S rRNA gene metabarcoding of archived plankton samples collected from November 2014 to August 2016 in this region showed a significant increase in Planctomycetes and bacteria belonging to the genus Vibrio and Synechococcus during and after the heatwave.

The fecal bacterial microbiome of the Kuhl's pipistrelle bat (Pipistrellus kuhlii) reflects landscape anthropogenic pressure.

Background: Anthropogenic disturbance has the potential to negatively affect wildlife health by altering food availability and diet composition, increasing the exposure to agrochemicals, and intensifying the contact with humans, domestic animals, and their pathogens. However, the impact of these factors on the fecal microbiome composition of wildlife hosts and its link to host health modulation remains barely explored. Here we investigated the composition of the fecal bacterial microbiome of the insectivorous bat Kuhl's pipistrelle (Pipistrellus kuhlii) dwelling in four environmental contexts with different levels of anthropogenic pressure.