Is El Niño a long-distance corridor for waterborne disease?

Martínez-Urtaza, Jaime; Triñanes, Joaquín; González-Escalona, Narjol; Baker‐Austin, Craig

doi:10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.18

Cited by 32 publications

(25 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…The application of whole-genome sequencing for the study of pathogenic V. parahaemolyticus populations was crucial to determine that the pandemic clone was not the only group that underwent transoceanic dispersal. Also, almost all of the major V. parahaemolyticus outbreaks identified in Peru and Chile over the last 25 years had been associated with the introduction of new genetic variants typically originating in Asia (33). Following this precedent, we used genome-wide analysis to investigate a more recent instance of transcontinental spreading of a highly pathogenic V. parahaemolyticus group, ST36.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genomic Variation and Evolution ofVibrio parahaemolyticusST36 over the Course of a Transcontinental Epidemic Expansion

Martínez-Urtaza

Aerle

Abanto

et al. 2017

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Vibrio parahaemolyticus is the leading cause of seafood-related infections with illnesses undergoing a geographic expansion. In this process of expansion, the most fundamental change has been the transition from infections caused by local strains to the surge of pandemic clonal types. Pandemic clone sequence type 3 (ST3) was the only example of transcontinental spreading until 2012, when ST36 was detected outside the region where it is endemic in the U.S. Pacific Northwest causing infections along the U.S. northeast coast and Spain. Here, we used genome-wide analyses to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the V. parahaemolyticus ST36 clone over the course of its geographic expansion during the previous 25 years. The origin of this lineage was estimated to be in~1985. By 1995, a new variant emerged in the region and quickly replaced the old clone, which has not been detected since 2000. The new Pacific Northwest (PNW) lineage was responsible for the first cases associated with this clone outside the Pacific Northwest region. After several introductions into the northeast coast, the new PNW clone differentiated into a highly dynamic group that continues to cause illness on the northeast coast of the United States. Surprisingly, the strains detected in Europe in 2012 diverged from this ancestral group around 2000 and have conserved genetic features present only in the old PNW lineage. Recombination was identified as the major driver of diversification, with some preliminary observations suggesting a trend toward a more specialized lifestyle, which may represent a critical element in the expansion of epidemics under scenarios of coastal warming.IMPORTANCE Vibrio parahaemolyticus and Vibrio cholerae represent the only two instances of pandemic expansions of human pathogens originating in the marine environment. However, while the current pandemic of V. cholerae emerged more than 50 years ago, the global expansion of V. parahaemolyticus is a recent phenomenon. These modern expansions provide an exceptional opportunity to study the evolutionary process of these pathogens at first hand and gain an understanding of the mechanisms shaping the epidemic dynamics of these diseases, in particular, the emergence, dispersal, and successful introduction in new regions facilitating global spreading of infections. In this study, we used genomic analysis to examine the evolutionary divergence that has occurred over the course of the most recent transcon-

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Genomic Variation and Evolution ofVibrio parahaemolyticusST36 over the Course of a Transcontinental Epidemic Expansion

Martínez-Urtaza

Aerle

Abanto

et al. 2017

mBio

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“…parahaemolyticus and represent a diverse set that can be used for other research endeavors, such as virulence typing, PCR detection of specific lineages, evolution, and spreading of different V. parahaemolyticus strains around the world (39, 40). This database will allow for testing contigs of new V.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Defining a Core Genome Multilocus Sequence Typing Scheme for the Global Epidemiology of Vibrio parahaemolyticus

et al. 2017

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Vibrio parahaemolyticus is an important human foodborne pathogen whose transmission is associated with the consumption of contaminated seafood, with a growing number of infections reported over recent years worldwide. A multilocus sequence typing (MLST) database for V. parahaemolyticus was created in 2008, and a large number of clones have been identified, causing severe outbreaks worldwide (sequence type 3 [ST3]), recurrent outbreaks in certain regions (e.g., ST36), or spreading to other regions where they are nonendemic (e.g., ST88 or ST189). The current MLST scheme uses sequences of 7 genes to generate an ST, which results in a powerful tool for inferring the population structure of this pathogen, although with limited resolution, especially compared to pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The application of whole-genome sequencing (WGS) has become routine for trace back investigations, with core genome MLST (cgMLST) analysis as one of the most straightforward ways to explore complex genomic data in an epidemiological context. Therefore, there is a need to generate a new, portable, standardized, and more advanced system that provides higher resolution and discriminatory power among V. parahaemolyticus strains using WGS data. We sequenced 92 V. parahaemolyticus genomes and used the genome of strain RIMD 2210633 as a reference (with a total of 4,832 genes) to determine which genes were suitable for establishing a V. parahaemolyticus cgMLST scheme. This analysis resulted in the identification of 2,254 suitable core genes for use in the cgMLST scheme. To evaluate the performance of this scheme, we performed a cgMLST analysis of 92 newly sequenced genomes, plus an additional 142 strains with genomes available at NCBI. cgMLST analysis was able to distinguish related and unrelated strains, including those with the same ST, clearly showing its enhanced resolution over conventional MLST analysis. It also distinguished outbreak-related from non-outbreak-related strains within the same ST. The sequences obtained from this work were deposited and are available in the public database (http://pubmlst.org/vparahaemolyticus). The application of this cgMLST scheme to the characterization of V. parahaemolyticus strains provided by different laboratories from around the world will reveal the global picture of the epidemiology, spread, and evolution of this pathogen and will become a powerful tool for outbreak investigations, allowing for the unambiguous comparison of strains with global coverage.

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“…The planetary influence of ENSO is induced through a complex suite of ocean-atmosphere feedbacks, tropical-extratropical interactions and atmospheric teleconnections. The specific influence of each of these remote forcing mechanisms is not fully determined yet, but they can severely disrupt temperature and rainfall patterns, storm tracks and cyclone trajectories (Cai et al 2015), with knock-on effects on crops, vector diseases (Martinez-Urtaza et al 2016), and on marine ecosystem composition, structure and functioning (e.g., Behrenfeld et al 2001;Jackson et al 2011;Masotti et al 2011;Racault et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Phenological Responses to ENSO in the Global Oceans

et al. 2016

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Phenology relates to the study of timing of periodic events in the life cycle of plants or animals as influenced by environmental conditions and climatic forcing. Phenological metrics provide information essential to quantify variations in the life cycle of these organisms. The metrics also allow us to estimate the speed at which living organisms respond to environmental changes. At the surface of the oceans, microscopic plant cells, so-called phytoplankton, grow and sometimes form blooms, with concentrations reaching up to 100 million cells per litre and extending over many square kilometres. These blooms can have a huge collective impact on ocean colour, because they contain chlorophyll and other auxiliary pigments, making them visible from space. Phytoplankton populations have a high turnover rate and can respond within hours to days to environmental perturbations. This makes them ideal indicators to study the first-level biological response to environmental changes. In the Earth's climate system, the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) dominates large-scale inter-annual variations in environmental conditions. It serves as a natural experiment to study and understand how phytoplankton in the ocean (and hence the organisms at higher trophic levels) respond to climate variability. Here, the ENSO influence on phytoplankton is estimated through variations in chlorophyll concentration, primary production and timings of initiation, peak, termination and duration of the growing period. The phenological variabilities are used to characterise phytoplankton responses to changes in some physical variables: sea surface temperature, sea surface height and wind. It is reported that in oceanic regions experiencing high annual Surv Geophys (2017) 38:277-293 DOI 10.1007 variations in the solar cycle, such as in high latitudes, the influence of ENSO may be readily measured using annual mean anomalies of physical variables. In contrast, in oceanic regions where ENSO modulates a climate system characterised by a seasonal reversal of the wind forcing, such as the monsoon system in the Indian Ocean, phenologybased mean anomalies of physical variables help refine evaluation of the mechanisms driving the biological responses and provide a more comprehensive understanding of the integrated processes.

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Is El Niño a long-distance corridor for waterborne disease?

Cited by 32 publications

References 14 publications

Genomic Variation and Evolution ofVibrio parahaemolyticusST36 over the Course of a Transcontinental Epidemic Expansion

Genomic Variation and Evolution ofVibrio parahaemolyticusST36 over the Course of a Transcontinental Epidemic Expansion

Defining a Core Genome Multilocus Sequence Typing Scheme for the Global Epidemiology of Vibrio parahaemolyticus

Phenological Responses to ENSO in the Global Oceans

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