Comparative Virulence and Genomic Analysis of Isolates

Overview

Journal Front Microbiol

Specialty Microbiology

Date 2021 Feb 12

PMID 33574803

Citations 11

Authors

Tracy L Nicholson

Ursula Waack

Tavis K Anderson

Darrell O Bayles

Sam R Zaia

Isaiah Goertz

Mark Eppinger

Samantha J Hau

Susan L Brockmeier

Sarah M Shore

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

is a zoonotic bacterial swine pathogen causing substantial economic and health burdens to the pork industry. Mechanisms used by to colonize and cause disease remain unknown and vaccines and/or intervention strategies currently do not exist. Studies addressing virulence mechanisms used by have been complicated because different isolates can cause a spectrum of disease outcomes ranging from lethal systemic disease to asymptomatic carriage. The objectives of this study were to evaluate the virulence capacity of nine United States isolates following intranasal challenge in swine and then perform comparative genomic analyses to identify genomic attributes associated with swine-virulent phenotypes. No correlation was found between the capacity to cause disease in swine and the functional characteristics of genome size, serotype, sequence type (ST), or virulence-associated phenotypes. A search for orthologs found in highly virulent isolates and not found in non-virulent isolates revealed numerous predicted protein coding sequences specific to each category. While none of these predicted protein coding sequences have been previously characterized as potential virulence factors, this analysis does provide a reliable one-to-one assignment of specific genes of interest that could prove useful in future allelic replacement and/or functional genomic studies. Collectively, this report provides a framework for future allelic replacement and/or functional genomic studies investigating genetic characteristics underlying the spectrum of disease outcomes caused by isolates.

Citing Articles

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