Comparative genomic analysis reveals the potential transmission of Vibrio parahaemolyticus from freshwater food to humans

Mingzhu Li; Haiyan Xu; Yuqi Tian; Youkun Zhang; Xinan Jiao; Dan Gu

doi:10.1016/j.fm.2023.104277

Comparative genomic analysis reveals the potential transmission of Vibrio parahaemolyticus from freshwater food to humans

Food Microbiol. 2023 Aug:113:104277. doi: 10.1016/j.fm.2023.104277. Epub 2023 Apr 6.

Authors

Mingzhu Li¹, Haiyan Xu², Yuqi Tian¹, Youkun Zhang¹, Xinan Jiao¹, Dan Gu³

Affiliations

¹ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Zoonosis, Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center for Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China.
² Nantong Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Nantong, China.
³ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Zoonosis, Jiangsu Co-Innovation Center for Prevention and Control of Important Animal Infectious Diseases and Zoonoses, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, China. Electronic address: 006491@yzu.edu.cn.

PMID: 37098434
DOI: 10.1016/j.fm.2023.104277

Abstract

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is an increasingly important foodborne pathogen that cause acute gastroenteritis in humans. However, the prevalence and transmission of this pathogen in freshwater food remains unclear. This study aimed to determine the molecular characteristics and genetic relatedness of V. parahaemolyticus isolates obtained from freshwater food, seafood, environmental, and clinical samples. A total of 138 (46.6%) isolates were detected from 296 food and environmental samples, and 68 clinical isolates from patients. Notably, V. parahaemolyticus was more prevalent in freshwater food (56.7%, 85/150) than in seafood (38.8%, 49/137). Virulence phenotype analyses revealed that the high motility of isolates from freshwater food (40.0%) and clinical isolates (42.0%) was higher than that of isolates from seafood (12.2%), whereas the biofilm-forming capacity of freshwater food isolates (9.4%) was lower than that of seafood (22.4%) and clinical isolates (15.9%). Virulence genes analysis showed that 46.4% of the clinical isolates contained the tdh gene encoding thermostable direct hemolysin (TDH) and only two freshwater food isolates contained the trh gene encoding TDH-related hemolysin (TRH). Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) analysis divided the 206 isolates into 105 sequence types (STs), including 56 (53.3%) novel STs. ST2583, ST469, and ST453 have been isolated from freshwater food and clinical samples. Whole-genome sequence (WGS) analyses revealed that the 206 isolates were divided into five clusters. Cluster II contained isolates from freshwater food and clinical samples, whereas the other clusters contained isolates from seafood, freshwater food, and clinical samples. In addition, we observed that ST2516 had the same virulence pattern, with a close phylogenetic relationship to ST3. The increased prevalence and adaption of V. parahaemolyticus in freshwater food is a potential cause of clinical cases closely related to the consumption of V. parahaemolyticus contaminated freshwater food.

Keywords: Genetic diversity; Multilocus sequence typing; Transmission pattern; Vibrio parahaemolyticus; Virulence.

MeSH terms

Genomics
Humans
Multilocus Sequence Typing
Phylogeny
Seafood
Vibrio Infections*
Vibrio parahaemolyticus*