title: NetF-producing Clostridium perfringens: Clonality and plasmid pathogenicity loci analysis.
abstract: Clostridium perfringens is an important cause of foal necrotizing enteritis and canine acute hemorrhagic diarrhea. A major virulence determinant of the strains associated with these diseases appears to be a beta-sheet pore-forming toxin, NetF, encoded within a pathogenicity locus (NetF locus) on a large tcp-conjugative plasmid. Strains producing NetF also produce the putative toxin NetE, encoded within the same pathogenicity locus, as well as CPE enterotoxin and CPB2 on a second plasmid, and sometimes the putative toxin NetG within a pathogenicity locus (NetG locus) on another separate large conjugative plasmid. Previous genome sequences of two netF-positive C. perfringens showed that they both shared three similar plasmids, including the NetF/NetE and CPE/CPB2 toxins-encoding plasmids mentioned above and a putative bacteriocin-encoding plasmid. The main purpose of this study was to determine whether all NetF-producing strains share this common plasmid profile and whether their distinct NetF and CPE pathogenicity loci are conserved. To answer this question, 15 equine and 15 canine netF-positive isolates of C. perfringens were sequenced using Illumina Hiseq2000 technology. In addition, the clonal relationships among the NetF-producing strains were evaluated by core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST). The data obtained showed that all NetF-producing strains have a common plasmid profile and that the defined pathogenicity loci on the plasmids are conserved in all these strains. cgMLST analysis showed that the NetF-producing C. perfringens strains belong to two distinct clonal complexes. The pNetG plasmid was absent from isolates of one of the clonal complexes, and there were minor but consistent differences in the NetF/NetE and CPE/CPB2 plasmids between the two clonal complexes.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathobiology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Iman
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Mehdizadeh Gohari
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathobiology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Andrew M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Kropinski
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathobiology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Scott J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Weese
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Clinical and Diagnostic Sciences, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
authors.forename: Ashley E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Whitehead
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathobiology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Valeria R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Parreira
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathobiology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Boerlin
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathobiology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address: prescott@uoguelph.ca.
authors.forename: John F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Prescott
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001427:Bacterial Toxins / Q000235:genetics*; D002170:Canada / Q000453:epidemiology; D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D002999:Clone Cells; D003015:Clostridium Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission / Q000662:veterinary; D003016:Clostridium perfringens / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission; D004285:Dogs; D056426:Genetic Loci; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D059014:High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing; D006734:Horse Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000635:transmission; D006736:Horses; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D010802:Phylogeny; D010957:Plasmids / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000378:metabolism; D013557:Switzerland / Q000453:epidemiology; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology
chemical_list: D001427:Bacterial Toxins; D004269:DNA, Bacterial
keywords: Clonality; Clostridium perfringens; NetF toxin; Pathogenicity locus; Sequencing