Mobile genetic elements provide evidence for a bovine origin of clonal complex 17 of Streptococcus agalactiae.
We sought an explanation for epidemiological changes in Streptococcus agalactiae infections by investigating the link between ecological niches of the bacterium by determining the prevalence of 11 mobile genetic elements. The prevalence of nine of these elements differed significantly according to the human or bovine origin of the isolate. Correlating this distribution with the phylogeny obtained by multilocus sequence analysis, we observed that human isolates harboring GBSi1, a clear marker of the bovine niche, clustered in clonal complex 17. Our results are thus consistent with the emergence of this virulent human clone from a bovine ancestor.
Héry-Arnaud
Geneviève
G
Université François-Rabelais, Faculté de Médecine, EA 3854 Bactéries et Risque Materno-Foetal, Laboratoire de Bactériologie, de Tours, 2 bd. Tonnellé, 37032 Tours, France.
Bruant
Guillaume
G
Lanotte
Philippe
P
Brun
Stella
S
Picard
Bertrand
B
Rosenau
Agnès
A
van der Mee-Marquet
Nathalie
N
Rainard
Pascal
P
Quentin
Roland
R
Mereghetti
Laurent
L
D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D006801:Humans; D020071:Interspersed Repetitive Sequences / Q000235:genetics*; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology; D013290:Streptococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D013292:Streptococcus agalactiae / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*