Mycobacterium chimaera is a nontuberculous mycobacterial species that causes cardiovascular, pulmonary, and postsurgical infections. Here, we report the first complete genome sequence of M. chimaera This genome is 6.33 Mbp, with a G+C content of 67.56%, and encodes 4,926 protein-coding genes, as well as 74 tRNAs, one ncRNA, and three rRNA genes. Copyright © 2016 Hasan et al.
Here, we report the complete genome sequences of Legionella pneumophila isolates from two collocated outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease in 2005 and 2008 in Sarpsborg/Fredrikstad, Norway. One clinical and two environmental isolates were sequenced from each outbreak. The genome of all six isolates consisted of a 3.36 Mb-chromosome, while the 2005 genomes featured an additional 68 kb-episome sharing high sequence similarity with the L. pneumophila Lens plasmid. All six genomes contained multiple mobile genetic elements including novel combinations of type-IVA secretion systems. A comparative genomics study will be launched to resolve the genetic relationship between the L. pneumophila isolates. Copyright © 2016 Dybwad et al.
In 2014, the identification of stone fruits contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes led to the subsequent identification of a multistate outbreak. Simultaneous detection and enumeration of L. monocytogenes were performed on 105 fruits, each weighing 127 to 145 g, collected from 7 contaminated lots. The results showed that 53.3% of the fruits yielded L. monocytogenes (lower limit of detection, 5 CFU/fruit), and the levels ranged from 5 to 2,850 CFU/fruit, with a geometric mean of 11.3 CFU/fruit (0.1 CFU/g of fruit). Two serotypes, IVb-v1 and 1/2b, were identified by a combination of PCR- and antiserum-based serotyping among isolates from fruits and their packing environment; certain fruits contained a mixture of both serotypes. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based whole-genome sequencing (WGS) analysis clustered isolates from two case-patients with the serotype IVb-v1 isolates and distinguished outbreak-associated isolates from pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE)-matched, but epidemiologically unrelated, clinical isolates. The outbreak-associated isolates differed by up to 42 SNPs. All but one serotype 1/2b isolate formed another WGS cluster and differed by up to 17 SNPs. Fully closed genomes of isolates from the stone fruits were used as references to maximize the resolution and to increase our confidence in prophage analysis. Putative prophages were conserved among isolates of each WGS cluster. All serotype IVb-v1 isolates belonged to singleton sequence type 382 (ST382); all but one serotype 1/2b isolate belonged to clonal complex 5.WGS proved to be an excellent tool to assist in the epidemiologic investigation of listeriosis outbreaks. The comparison at the genome level contributed to our understanding of the genetic diversity and variations among isolates involved in an outbreak or isolates associated with food and environmental samples from one facility. Fully closed genomes increased our confidence in the identification and comparison of accessory genomes. The diversity among the outbreak-associated isolates and the inclusion of PFGE-matched, but epidemiologically unrelated, isolates demonstrate the high resolution of WGS. The prevalence and enumeration data could contribute to our further understanding of the risk associated with Listeria monocytogenes contamination, especially among high-risk populations. Copyright © 2016 Chen et al.
The Stenotrophomonas genus shows great adaptive potential including resistance to multiple antimicrobials, opportunistic pathogenicity, and production of numerous secondary metabolites. Using long-read technology, we report the sequence of a plant-associated Stenotrophomonas strain originating from the citrus phyllosphere that displays a copper resistance phenotype. Copyright © 2016 Richard et al.
DNA methylation in prokaryotes is widespread. The most common modification of the genome is the methylation of adenine at the N-6 position. In Escherichia coli K-12 and many gammaproteobacteria, this modification is catalyzed by DNA adenine methyltransferase (Dam) at the GATC consensus sequence and is known to modulate cellular processes including transcriptional regulation of gene expression, initiation of chromosomal replication, and DNA mismatch repair. While studies thus far have focused on the motifs associated with methylated adenine (meA), the frequency of meA across the genome, and temporal dynamics during early periods of incubation, here we conduct the first study on the temporal dynamics of adenine methylation in E. coli by Dam throughout all five phases of the bacterial life cycle in the laboratory. Using single-molecule real-time sequencing, we show that virtually all GATC sites are significantly methylated over time; nearly complete methylation of the chromosome was confirmed by mass spectroscopy analysis. However, we also detect 66 sites whose methylation patterns change significantly over time within a population, including three sites associated with sialic acid transport and catabolism, suggesting a potential role for Dam regulation of these genes; differential expression of this subset of genes was confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR. Further, we show significant growth defects of the dam mutant during long-term stationary phase (LTSP). Together these data suggest that the cell places a high premium on fully methylating the chromosome and that alterations in methylation patterns may have significant impact on patterns of transcription, maintenance of genetic fidelity, and cell survival. IMPORTANCE While it has been shown that methylation remains relatively constant into early stationary phase of E. coli, this study goes further through death phase and long-term stationary phase, a unique time in the bacterial life cycle due to nutrient limitation and strong selection for mutants with increased fitness. The absence of methylation at GATC sites can influence the mutation frequency within a population due to aberrant mismatch repair. Therefore, it is important to investigate the methylation status of GATC sites in an environment where cells may not prioritize methylation of the chromosome. This study demonstrates that chromosome methylation remains a priority even under conditions of nutrient limitation, indicating that continuous methylation at GATC sites could be under positive selection.
Heritable DNA methylation imprints are ubiquitous and underlie genetic variability from bacteria to humans. In microbial genomes, DNA methylation has been implicated in gene transcription, DNA replication and repair, nucleoid segregation, transposition and virulence of pathogenic strains. Despite the importance of local (hypo)methylation at specific loci, how and when these patterns are established during the cell cycle remains poorly characterized. Taking advantage of the small genomes and the synchronizability of a-proteobacteria, we discovered that conserved determinants of the cell cycle transcriptional circuitry establish specific hypomethylation patterns in the cell cycle model system Caulobacter crescentus. We used genome-wide methyl-N6-adenine (m6A-) analyses by restriction-enzyme-cleavage sequencing (REC-Seq) and single-molecule real-time (SMRT) sequencing to show that MucR, a transcriptional regulator that represses virulence and cell cycle genes in S-phase but no longer in G1-phase, occludes 5′-GANTC-3′ sequence motifs that are methylated by the DNA adenine methyltransferase CcrM. Constitutive expression of CcrM or heterologous methylases in at least two different a-proteobacteria homogenizes m6A patterns even when MucR is present and affects promoter activity. Environmental stress (phosphate limitation) can override and reconfigure local hypomethylation patterns imposed by the cell cycle circuitry that dictate when and where local hypomethylation is instated.
Targeted sequencing is commonly used in clinical application of NGS technology since it enables generation of sufficient sequencing depth in the targeted genes of interest and thus ensures the best possible downstream analysis. This notwithstanding, the accurate discovery and annotation of disease causing mutations remains a challenging problem even in such favorable context. The difficulty is particularly salient in the case of third generation sequencing technology, such as PacBio. We present MICADo, a de Bruijn graph based method, implemented in python, that makes possible to distinguish between patient specific mutations and other alterations for targeted sequencing of a cohort of patients. MICADo analyses NGS reads for each sample within the context of the data of the whole cohort in order to capture the differences between specificities of the sample with respect to the cohort. MICADo is particularly suitable for sequencing data from highly heterogeneous samples, especially when it involves high rates of non-uniform sequencing errors. It was validated on PacBio sequencing datasets from several cohorts of patients. The comparison with two widely used available tools, namely VarScan and GATK, shows that MICADo is more accurate, especially when true mutations have frequencies close to backgound noise. The source code is available at http://github.com/cbib/MICADo.
Several species of the genus Dickeya provoke soft rot and blackleg diseases on a wide range of plants and crops. Dickeya solani has been identified as the causative agent of diseases outbreaks on potato culture in Europe for the last decade. Here, we report the complete genome of the D. solani IPO 2222(T). Using PacBio and Illumina technologies, a unique circular chromosome of 4,919,833 bp was assembled. The G?+?C content reaches 56% and the genomic sequence contains 4,059 predicted proteins. The ANI values calculated for D. solani IPO 2222(T) vs. other available D. solani genomes was over 99.9% indicating a high genetic homogeneity within D. solani species.
Serum Institute of India is among the world’s largest vaccine producers. Here, we report the complete genome sequences for four Bordetella pertussis strains used by Serum Institute of India in the production of whole-cell pertussis vaccines. Copyright © 2016 Weigand et al.
Entomopathogenic fungi such as Beauveria bassiana are promising biological agents for control of malaria mosquitoes. Indeed, infection with B. bassiana reduces the lifespan of mosquitoes in the laboratory and in the field. Natural isolates of B. bassiana show up to 10-fold differences in virulence between the most and the least virulent isolate. In this study, we sequenced the genomes of five isolates representing the extremes of low/high virulence and three RNA libraries, and applied a genome comparison approach to uncover genetic mechanisms underpinning virulence.A high-quality, near-complete genome assembly was achieved for the highly virulent isolate Bb8028, which was compared to the assemblies of the four other isolates. Whole genome analysis showed a high level of genetic diversity between the five isolates (2.85-16.8 SNPs/kb), which grouped into two distinct phylogenetic clusters. Mating type gene analysis revealed the presence of either the MAT1-1-1 or the MAT1-2-1 gene. Moreover, a putative new MAT gene (MAT1-2-8) was detected in the MAT1-2 locus. Comparative genome analysis revealed that Bb8028 contains 163 genes exclusive for this isolate. These unique genes have a tendency to cluster in the genome and to be often located near the telomeres. Among the genes unique to Bb8028 are a Non-Ribosomal Peptide Synthetase (NRPS) secondary metabolite gene cluster, a polyketide synthase (PKS) gene, and five genes with homology to bacterial toxins. A survey of candidate virulence genes for B. bassiana is presented.Our results indicate several genes and molecular processes that may underpin virulence towards mosquitoes. Thus, the genome sequences of five isolates of B. bassiana provide a better understanding of the natural variation in virulence and will offer a major resource for future research on this important biological control agent.
Enterococcus faecalis, the type strain of the genus Enterococcus, is not only a commensal bacterium in the gastrointestinal tract in vertebrates and invertebrates, but also causes serious disease as an opportunistic pathogen. To date, genome sequences have been published for over four hundred E. faecalis strains; however, pathogenicity of these microbes remains complicated. To increase our knowledge of E. faecalis virulence factors, we isolated strain CBA7120 from the feces of an 81-year-old female from the Republic of Korea and performed a comparative genomic analysis.The genome sequence of E. faecalis CBA7120 is 3,134,087 bp in length, with a G + C content of 37.35 mol%, and is comprised of four contigs with an N50 value of 2,922,046 bp. The genome showed high similarity with other strains of E. faecalis, including OG1RF, T13, 12107 and T20, based on OrthoANI values. Strain CBA7120 contains 374 pan-genome orthologous groups (POGs) as singletons, including “Phages, Prophages, Transposable elements, Plasmids,” “Carbohydrates,” “DNA metabolism,” and “Virulence, Disease and Defense” subsystems. Genes related to multidrug resistance efflux pumps were annotated in the genome.The comparative genomic analysis of E. faecalis strains presented in this study was performed using a variety of analysis methods and will facilitate future identification of hypothetical proteins.
The whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) is among the 100 worst invasive species in the world. As one of the most important crop pests and virus vectors, B. tabaci causes substantial crop losses and poses a serious threat to global food security. We report the 615-Mb high-quality genome sequence of B. tabaci Middle East-Asia Minor 1 (MEAM1), the first genome sequence in the Aleyrodidae family, which contains 15,664 protein-coding genes. The B. tabaci genome is highly divergent from other sequenced hemipteran genomes, sharing no detectable synteny. A number of known detoxification gene families, including cytochrome P450s and UDP-glucuronosyltransferases, are significantly expanded in B. tabaci. Other expanded gene families, including cathepsins, large clusters of tandemly duplicated B. tabaci-specific genes, and phosphatidylethanolamine-binding proteins (PEBPs), were found to be associated with virus acquisition and transmission and/or insecticide resistance, likely contributing to the global invasiveness and efficient virus transmission capacity of B. tabaci. The presence of 142 horizontally transferred genes from bacteria or fungi in the B. tabaci genome, including genes encoding hopanoid/sterol synthesis and xenobiotic detoxification enzymes that are not present in other insects, offers novel insights into the unique biological adaptations of this insect such as polyphagy and insecticide resistance. Interestingly, two adjacent bacterial pantothenate biosynthesis genes, panB and panC, have been co-transferred into B. tabaci and fused into a single gene that has acquired introns during its evolution.The B. tabaci genome contains numerous genetic novelties, including expansions in gene families associated with insecticide resistance, detoxification and virus transmission, as well as numerous horizontally transferred genes from bacteria and fungi. We believe these novelties likely have shaped B. tabaci as a highly invasive polyphagous crop pest and efficient vector of plant viruses. The genome serves as a reference for resolving the B. tabaci cryptic species complex, understanding fundamental biological novelties, and providing valuable genetic information to assist the development of novel strategies for controlling whiteflies and the viruses they transmit.
Here, we present the complete genome sequence of Rothia aeria type strain JCM 11412, isolated from air in the Russian space laboratory Mir. Recently, there has been an increasing number of reports on infections caused by R. aeria The genomic information will enable researchers to identify the pathogenicity of this organism. Copyright © 2016 Nambu et al.
Streptococcus sp. strain NPS 308, isolated from an 8-year-old girl diagnosed with infective endocarditis, likely presents a novel species of Streptococcus Here, we present a complete genome sequence of this species, which will contribute to better understanding of the pathogenesis of infective endocarditis. Copyright © 2016 Kondo et al.
Here, we present the complete genome sequence of Actinomyces naeslundii strain ATCC 27039, isolated from an abdominal wound abscess. This strain is genetically transformable and will thus provide valuable information related to its crucial role in oral multispecies biofilm development. Copyright © 2016 Mashimo et al.
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