Comparative Screening of Digestion Tract Toxic Genes in Proteus mirabilis

PLoS One. 2016 Mar 24;11(3):e0151873. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0151873. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Proteus mirabilis is a common urinary tract pathogen, and may induce various inflammation symptoms. Its notorious ability to resist multiple antibiotics and to form urinary tract stones makes its treatment a long and painful process, which is further challenged by the frequent horizontal gene transferring events in P. mirabilis genomes. Three strains of P. mirabilis C02011/C04010/C04013 were isolated from a local outbreak of a food poisoning event in Shenzhen, China. Our hypothesis is that new genes may have been acquired horizontally to exert the digestion tract infection and toxicity. The functional characterization of these three genomes shows that each of them independently acquired dozens of virulent genes horizontally from the other microbial genomes. The representative strain C02011 induces the symptoms of both vomit and diarrhea, and has recently acquired a complete type IV secretion system and digestion tract toxic genes from the other bacteria.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • China / epidemiology
  • Foodborne Diseases / diagnosis
  • Foodborne Diseases / epidemiology
  • Foodborne Diseases / microbiology*
  • Genes, Bacterial
  • Humans
  • Phylogeny
  • Proteus Infections / diagnosis
  • Proteus Infections / epidemiology
  • Proteus Infections / microbiology*
  • Proteus mirabilis / genetics*
  • Proteus mirabilis / isolation & purification

Grants and funding

This work was supported by grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant 81302434), Science and Technology Planning Project of Shenzhen, Guangdong, China (Grant 201302239, JCYJ20130329103949651) and Shenzhen Public Service Platform of Pathogenic Microorganisms Repository.