Dataset Information

Whole-genome sequencing of staphylococcus haemolyticus uncovers the extreme plasticity of its genome and the evolution of human-colonizing staphylococcal species.

ABSTRACT: Staphylococcus haemolyticus is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen that colonizes human skin and is remarkable for its highly antibiotic-resistant phenotype. We determined the complete genome sequence of S.haemolyticus to better understand its pathogenicity and evolutionary relatedness to the other staphylococcal species. A large proportion of the open reading frames in the genomes of S.haemolyticus, Staphylococcus aureus, and Staphylococcus epidermidis were conserved in their sequence and order on the chromosome. We identified a region of the bacterial chromosome just downstream of the origin of replication that showed little homology among the species but was conserved among strains within a species. This novel region, designated the "oriC environ," likely contributes to the evolution and differentiation of the staphylococcal species, since it was enriched for species-specific nonessential genes that contribute to the biological features of each staphylococcal species. A comparative analysis of the genomes of S.haemolyticus, S.aureus, and S.epidermidis elucidated differences in their biological and genetic characteristics and pathogenic potentials. We identified as many as 82 insertion sequences in the S.haemolyticus chromosome that probably mediated frequent genomic rearrangements, resulting in phenotypic diversification of the strain. Such rearrangements could have brought genomic plasticity to this species and contributed to its acquisition of antibiotic resistance.

SUBMITTER: Takeuchi F

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1272970 | biostudies-literature | 2005 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Whole-genome sequencing of staphylococcus haemolyticus uncovers the extreme plasticity of its genome and the evolution of human-colonizing staphylococcal species.

Takeuchi Fumihiko F Watanabe Shinya S Baba Tadashi T Yuzawa Harumi H Ito Teruyo T Morimoto Yuh Y Kuroda Makoto M Cui Longzhu L Takahashi Mikio M Ankai Akiho A Baba Shin-ichi S Fukui Shigehiro S Lee Jean C JC Hiramatsu Keiichi K

Journal of bacteriology 20051101 21

Staphylococcus haemolyticus is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen that colonizes human skin and is remarkable for its highly antibiotic-resistant phenotype. We determined the complete genome sequence of S.haemolyticus to better understand its pathogenicity and evolutionary relatedness to the other staphylococcal species. A large proportion of the open reading frames in the genomes of S.haemolyticus, Staphylococcus aureus, and Staphylococcus epidermidis were conserved in their sequence and order ...[more]

PMID: 16237012

Similar Datasets

Project description:Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections pose a major challenge in health care, yet the limited heterogeneity within this group hinders molecular investigations of related outbreaks. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) has been the gold standard approach but is impractical for many clinical laboratories and is often replaced with PCR-based methods. Regardless, both approaches can prove problematic for identifying subclonal outbreaks. Here, we explore the use of whole-genome sequencing for clinical laboratory investigations of MRSA molecular epidemiology. We examine the relationships of 44 MRSA isolates collected over a period of 3 years by using whole-genome sequencing and two PCR-based methods, multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) and spa typing. We find that MLVA offers higher resolution than spa typing, as it resolved 17 versus 12 discrete isolate groups, respectively. In contrast, whole-genome sequencing reproducibly cataloged genomic variants (131,424 different single nucleotide polymorphisms and indels across the strain collection) that uniquely identified each MRSA clone, recapitulating those groups but enabling higher-resolution phylogenetic inferences of the epidemiological relationships. Importantly, whole-genome sequencing detected a significant number of variants, thereby distinguishing between groups that were considered identical by both spa typing (minimum, 1,124 polymorphisms) and MLVA (minimum, 193 polymorphisms); this suggests that these more conventional approaches can lead to false-positive identification of outbreaks due to inappropriate grouping of genetically distinct strains. An analysis of the distribution of variants across the MRSA genome reveals 47 mutational hot spots (comprising ? 2.5% of the genome) that account for 23.5% of the observed polymorphisms, and the use of this selected data set successfully recapitulates most epidemiological relationships in this pathogen group.

Dataset Information

Whole-genome sequencing of staphylococcus haemolyticus uncovers the extreme plasticity of its genome and the evolution of human-colonizing staphylococcal species.

Publications

Whole-genome sequencing of staphylococcus haemolyticus uncovers the extreme plasticity of its genome and the evolution of human-colonizing staphylococcal species.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets