A novel phytopathogen Erwinia sorbitola sp. nov., isolated from the feces of ruddy shelducks

Yuanmeihui Tao; Yajun Ge; Jing Yang; Weitao Song; Dong Jin; Hong Lin; Han Zheng; Shan Lu; Wenbo Luo; Yuyuan Huang; Zhenhong Zhuang; Jianguo Xu

doi:10.3389/fcimb.2023.1109634

A novel phytopathogen Erwinia sorbitola sp. nov., isolated from the feces of ruddy shelducks

Front Cell Infect Microbiol. 2023 Feb 16:13:1109634. doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2023.1109634. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yuanmeihui Tao¹, Yajun Ge^{1

2}, Jing Yang^{1

3}, Weitao Song⁴, Dong Jin^{1

3}, Hong Lin⁴, Han Zheng^{1

3}, Shan Lu^{1

3}, Wenbo Luo¹, Yuyuan Huang¹, Zhenhong Zhuang⁴, Jianguo Xu^{1

3

5}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Changping, Beijing, China.
² College of Basic Medicine, Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, Lanzhou, China.
³ Research Units of Discovery of Unknown Bacteria and Function, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Pathogenic Fungi and Mycotoxins of Fujian Province, Proteomic Research Center, and School of Life Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China.
⁵ Research Institute of Public Health, Nankai University, Tianjin, China.

Abstract

The species in the genus Erwinia are Gram-stain-negative, facultatively anaerobic, motile, and rod-shaped. Most species in the genus Erwinia are phytopathogens. Also, Erwinia persicina was involved in several human infections. Based on the reverse microbial etiology principles, it is worth analyzing the pathogenicity of species in this genus. In this study, we isolated and sequenced two species of Erwinia. Phylogenetic, phenotypic, biochemical, and chemotaxonomic analyses were performed to identify its taxonomy position. The virulence tests on plant leaves and pear fruits were used to identify the plant pathogenicity of two species of Erwinia. Bioinformatic methods predicted the possible pathogenic determinants based on the genome sequence. Meanwhile, adhesion, invasion, and cytotoxicity assays on RAW 264.7 cells were applied to identify animal pathogenicity. We isolated two Gram-stain-negative, facultatively anaerobic, motile, and rod-shaped strains from the feces of ruddy shelducks in the Tibet Plateau of China, designated J780T and J316. Distinct phylogenetic, genomic, phenotypic, biochemical, and chemotaxonomic characters of J780T and J316 identified they were novel species and belonged to the genus Erwinia, for which the name Erwinia sorbitola sp. nov. was proposed, the type strain was J780T (= CGMCC 1.17334T = GDMCC 1.1666T = JCM 33839T). Virulence tests showed blight and rot on the leaves and pear fruits confirmed Erwinia sorbitola sp. nov. was a phytopathogen. Predicted gene clusters of motility, biofilm formation, exopolysaccharides, stress survival, siderophores, and Type VI secretion system might be the causes of pathogenicity. In addition, predicted polysaccharide biosynthesis gene clusters on the genome sequence, and the high capacity for adhesion, invasion, and cytotoxicity to animal cells confirmed it has pathogenicity on animals. In conclusion, we isolated and identified a novel phytopathogen Erwinia sorbitola sp. nov. in ruddy shelducks. A predefined pathogen is beneficial for preventing from suffering potential economic losses caused by this new pathogen.

Keywords: Erwinia sorbitola; pathogenicity analysis; phytopathogen; reverse microbial etiology; ruddy shelducks.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Anxiety
Ducks*
Erwinia*
Feces
Humans
Phylogeny

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from the National Key R&D Program of China (2019YFC1200500 and 2019YFC1200505) and Research Units of Discovery of Unknown Bacteria and Function (2018RU010).