Comparative Genome Analyses of Streptococcus suis Isolates from Endocarditis Demonstrate Persistence of Dual Phenotypic Clones

PLoS One. 2016 Jul 19;11(7):e0159558. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0159558. eCollection 2016.

Abstract

Many bacterial species coexist in the same niche as heterogeneous clones with different phenotypes; however, understanding of infectious diseases by polyphenotypic bacteria is still limited. In the present study, encapsulation in isolates of the porcine pathogen Streptococcus suis from persistent endocarditis lesions was examined. Coexistence of both encapsulated and unencapsulated S. suis isolates was found in 26 out of 59 endocarditis samples. The isolates were serotype 2, and belonged to two different sequence types (STs), ST1 and ST28. The genomes of each of the 26 pairs of encapsulated and unencapsulated isolates from the 26 samples were sequenced. The data showed that each pair of isolates had one or more unique nonsynonymous mutations in the cps gene, and the encapsulated and unencapsulated isolates from the same samples were closest to each other. Pairwise comparisons of the sequences of cps genes in 7 pairs of encapsulated and unencapsulated isolates identified insertion/deletions (indels) ranging from one to 104 bp in different cps genes of unencapsulated isolates. Capsule expression was restored in a subset of unencapsulated isolates by complementation in trans with cps expression vectors. Examination of gene content common to isolates indicated that mutation frequency was higher in ST28 pairs than in ST1 pairs. Genes within mobile genetic elements were mutation hot spots among ST28 isolates. Taken all together, our results demonstrate the coexistence of dual phenotype (encapsulated and unencapsulated) bacterial clones and suggest that the dual phenotypes arose independently in each farm by means of spontaneous mutations in cps genes.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Bacterial Capsules / genetics
  • Bacterial Capsules / metabolism
  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics*
  • Bacterial Proteins / metabolism
  • Clone Cells
  • Comparative Genomic Hybridization
  • Endocarditis / microbiology
  • Endocarditis / pathology
  • Endocarditis / veterinary*
  • Gene Expression
  • Genetic Complementation Test
  • Genome, Bacterial*
  • INDEL Mutation
  • Interspersed Repetitive Sequences
  • Multigene Family
  • Mutation Rate
  • Phenotype*
  • Phylogeny
  • Sequence Analysis, DNA
  • Serogroup
  • Streptococcal Infections / microbiology
  • Streptococcal Infections / pathology
  • Streptococcal Infections / veterinary*
  • Streptococcus suis / classification
  • Streptococcus suis / genetics*
  • Streptococcus suis / isolation & purification
  • Streptococcus suis / pathogenicity
  • Swine
  • Swine Diseases / microbiology*
  • Swine Diseases / pathology
  • Virulence

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins

Grants and funding

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 15K15675, 25713060, 24117508 (to FM), 25305013 (to IN), 15J10486 (to SA), 26861544, 16K08015 (to TW), 26660226, 15H02651 and 16K15037 (to TS).