Phylogenetic and Biogeographic Patterns of Vibrio parahaemolyticus Strains from North America Inferred from Whole-Genome Sequence Data

Abstract

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is the most common cause of seafood-borne illness reported in the United States. Draft genomes of 132 North American clinical and oyster V. parahaemolyticus isolates were sequenced to investigate their phylogenetic and biogeographic relationships. The majority of oyster isolate sequence types (STs) were from a single harvest location; however, four were identified from multiple locations. There was population structure along the Gulf and Atlantic Coasts of North America, with what seemed to be a hub of genetic variability along the Gulf Coast with some of the same STs occurring along the Atlantic Coast and one shared between the coastal waters of the Gulf and those of Washington state. Phylogenetic analyses found nine well-supported clades. Two clades were composed of isolates from both clinical and oyster sources. Four were composed entirely from clinical sources and three entirely from oyster sources. Each single source clade consisted of one ST. Some human isolates lack tdh and trh and some T3SS genes, which are established virulence genes of V. parahaemolyticus. Thus, these genes are not essential for pathogenicity. However, isolates in the monophyletic groups from clinical sources were enriched in several categories of genes when compared to those from monophyletic groups of oyster isolates. These functional categories include: cell signaling, transport, and metabolism. Identification of genes in these functional categories provides a basis for future in-depth pathogenicity investigations of V. parahaemolyticus. IMPORTANCE Vibrio parahaemolyticus is the most common cause of seafood-borne illness reported in the United States and is frequently associated with shellfish consumption. This study contributes to our knowledge of the biogeography and functional genomics of this species around North America. STs shared between the Gulf Coast and the Atlantic seaboard as well as Pacific waters suggests possible transport via oceanic currents or large shipping vessels. STs frequently isolated from humans, but rarely if ever from the environment, are likely more competitive in the human gut compared to other STs. This could be due to additional functional capabilities in areas like cell signaling, transport, and metabolism which may give these isolates an advantage in novel nutrient replete environments like the human gut.

Multilocus Sequence Typing and Virulence Potential of Vibrio parahaemolyticus Strains Isolated from Aquatic Bird Feces

“…These genetic features underlie the non-robust MLST interpretation. Our results supported those of previous studies which showed that WGS analyses could yield enhanced resolution for V. parahaemolyticus classification; nevertheless, conventional MLST is a reliable tool that can generate phylogenetic data for the V. parahaemolyticus genome when WGS is unavailable ( 68 ). The limitation in our study was the uncertain origin of bird fecal samples.…”

Hydrophobicity Determines the Bacterial Killing Rate of α-Helical Antimicrobial Peptides and Influences the Bacterial Resistance Development

“…V. parahaemolyticus, a halophilic, Gram-negative bacterium that inhabits coastal estuarine environments, poses a major threat to human health worldwide V.…”

“…parahaemolyticus is the leading cause of seafood-borne infections globally. It can result in mild to acute gastroenteritis, wound infections, ear infections, and even sepsis . Currently, multidrug-resistant V.…”

“…V. parahaemolyticus, a halophilic, Gram-negative bacterium that inhabits coastal estuarine environments, poses a major threat to human health worldwide. 24 V. parahaemolyticus is the leading cause of seafood-borne infections globally. It can result in mild to acute gastroenteritis, wound infections, ear infections, and even sepsis.…”

“…It can result in mild to acute gastroenteritis, wound infections, ear infections, and even sepsis. 24 Currently, multidrug-resistant V. parahaemolyticus has become a significant public health concern. 25 As shown in Table 2, the MIC values of the peptides against V. parahaemolyticus ATCC17802 were the same of 4.69 μg/mL (except for AS5-2 with an MIC value of 2.34 μg/mL), which facilitates the performance of the following bacterial killing rate and mechanism studies.…”