Comparative Genomics Reveals Pathogenicity-Related Loci in Shewanella algae

Jui-Hsing Wang; Guo-Cheng He; Yao-Ting Huang; Po-Yu Liu

doi:10.1155/2020/9205197

Comparative Genomics Reveals Pathogenicity-Related Loci in Shewanella algae

Can J Infect Dis Med Microbiol. 2020 Mar 30:2020:9205197. doi: 10.1155/2020/9205197. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Jui-Hsing Wang^{1

2}, Guo-Cheng He³, Yao-Ting Huang², Po-Yu Liu^{4

5

6}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Taichung 427, Taiwan.
² Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, Tzu Chi University, Hualien 970, Taiwan.
³ Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, National Chung Cheng University, Chia-Yi 62102, Taiwan.
⁴ Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung 40705, Taiwan.
⁵ Rong Hsing Research Center for Translational Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan.
⁶ Ph.D. Program in Translational Medicine, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan.

Abstract

Shewanella algae is an emerging marine zoonotic pathogen and accounts for considerable mortality and morbidity in compromised hosts. However, there is scarce literature related to the understanding of the genetic background of virulence determinants in S. algae. In this study, we aim to determine the occurrence of common virulence genes in S. algae using whole-genome sequence and comparative genomic analysis. Comparative genomics reveals putative-virulence genes related to bile resistance, chemotaxis, hemolysis, and motility. We detected the existence of hlyA, hlyD, and hlyIII involved in hemolysis. We also found chemotaxis gene cluster cheYZA operon and cheW gene. The results provide insights into the genetic basis underlying pathogenicity in S. algae.