Skin microbiota is the main reservoir of Roseomonas mucosa, an emerging opportunistic pathogen so far assumed to be environmental

Abstract

Roseomonas spp. are increasingly involved in human infectious diseases. The environmental source for infection is generally admitted in published cases owing to the origin of most Roseomonas species and to their affiliation to the family Acetobacteraceae in Rhodospirillales, which mainly groups environmental bacteria. For a better delineation of Roseomonas habitat and infectious reservoir, we related phenotype, phylotype (16S rRNA gene), genomotype (pulsed-field gel electrophoresis) and origin of 33 strains isolated from humans, hospital environment and natural environment. Genetic and metagenomic databases were also surveyed. The population structure of the genus showed clades associated with humans, whereas others grouped environmental strains only. Roseomonas mucosa is the main human-associated species and the study supported the idea that opportunistic infections due to this species are related to the patient skin microbiota rather than to the environment. In contrast, some strains belonging to other species isolated from patients with cystic fibrosis were related to environmental clades, suggesting an exogenous source for patient colonization. Accurate knowledge about the reservoirs of opportunistic pathogens that have long been considered of environmental origin is still needed and would be helpful to improve infection control and epidemiological survey of emerging human pathogens.

Keywords: Habitat; Infection source; Opportunistic pathogens; Population structure; Roseomonas; Skin microbiota.