Impact of human-associated Escherichia coli clonal groups in Antarctic pinnipeds: presence of ST73, ST95, ST141 and ST131

Abstract

There is growing concern about the spreading of human microorganisms in relatively untouched ecosystems such as the Antarctic region. For this reason, three pinniped species (Leptonychotes weddellii, Mirounga leonina and Arctocephalus gazella) from the west coast of the Antartic Peninsula were analysed for the presence of Escherichia spp. with the recovery of 158 E. coli and three E. albertii isolates. From those, 23 harboured different eae variants (α1, β1, β2, ε1, θ1, κ, ο), including a bfpA-positive isolate (O49:H10-A-ST206, eae-k) classified as typical enteropathogenic E. coli. Noteworthy, 62 of the 158 E. coli isolates (39.2%) exhibited the ExPEC status and 27 (17.1%) belonged to sequence types (ST) frequently occurring among urinary/bacteremia ExPEC clones: ST12, ST73, ST95, ST131 and ST141. We found similarities >85% within the PFGE-macrorrestriction profiles of pinniped and human clinic O2:H6-B2-ST141 and O16:H5/O25b:H4-B2-ST131 isolates. The in silico analysis of ST131 Cplx genomes from the three pinnipeds (five O25:H4-ST131/PST43-fimH22-virotype D; one O16:H5-ST131/PST506-fimH41; one O25:H4-ST6252/PST9-fimH22-virotype D1) identified IncF and IncI1 plasmids and revealed high core-genome similarities between pinniped and human isolates (H22 and H41 subclones). This is the first study to demonstrate the worrisome presence of human-associated E. coli clonal groups, including ST131, in Antarctic pinnipeds.

Genomic Characterization of Escherichia coli Isolates Belonging to a New Hybrid aEPEC/ExPEC Pathotype O153:H10-A-ST10 eae-beta1 Occurred in Meat, Poultry, Wildlife and Human Diarrheagenic Samples

“…The in silico analysis of 17 representative genomes O153:H10-A-ST10 corroborated the main traits determined by conventional typing. In a recent study, we proved the good correlation and usefulness of SerotypeFinder or EnteroBase predictions [25,45]. Here, only the serotype of two genomes could not be predicted in silico, probably due to the limitation of the assembly based on Illumina short reads [46].…”

“…Epidemiological studies have indicated that aEPEC are emerging enteropathogens, implicated in human diarrhea, with higher prevalence than tEPEC in both developed and developing countries [23]. aEPEC are present in both healthy and diseased animals and humans [8,24,25], are phylogenetically heterogeneous, and carry virulence factors of other diarrheagenic E. coli more often than tEPEC strains [6,23,26]. However, the main feature of the EPEC diarrheagenic group is the ability to induce A/E lesions on intestinal epithelium encoded in the chromosomal pathogenicity island LEE.…”

Swine Enteric Colibacillosis in Spain: Pathogenic Potential of mcr-1 ST10 and ST131 E. coli Isolates

“…Determination of O:H antigens was carried out following the method described by Guinée et al (1981) with O1 to O185 and H1 to H56 antisera, respectively. Isolates that did not react with any O antisera were classified as non-typeable (ONT), and non-motile isolates (HNM) were further analyzed by PCR to determine their flagellar genes ( Mora et al, 2018 ; Supplementary Table S2 ).…”

International clones of extended‐spectrum β‐lactamase (CTX‐M)‐producingEscherichia coliin peri‐urban wild animals, Brazil

“…On the other hand, while E. coli O89/O162:H10 has been associated with hospital-acquired infections, in Asian countries (Lin, Kuroda, Suzuki, & Mu, 2019;Nguyen et al, 2019), E. coli O18:H49 and O78:H21 have been reported in wild animals from Europe and Asia (Bai et al, 2013;Eggert et al, 2013). Escherichia coli O130:H26 and O17/O44/ O77:H34 have been identified in human and animal samples from Asia, Europe, Australia, Antarctica and South America (Bettelheim et al, 2003;Delgado-Blas, Ovejero, Abadia-Patino, & Gonzalez-Zorn, 2016;Ho, Tan, Ooi, Yeo, & Thong, 2013;Mora et al, 2018;Müller et al, 2007). (Table 1).…”