Genome sequence and phenotypic analysis of a first German Francisella sp. isolate (W12-1067) not belonging to the species Francisella tularensis

BMC Microbiology

Research Article

Tino Schulz¹  Klaus Heuner¹  Kerstin Rydzewski¹  Roland Grunow²  Gudrun Holland³  Elzbieta Brzuszkiewicz⁴  Christian Lück⁵  Jens Fleischer⁶ 

[1] Cellular Interactions of Bacterial Pathogens, Centre for Biological Threats and Special Pathogens, Division 2 (ZBS 2), Robert Koch Institute, Nordufer 20, 13353, Berlin, Germany;Centre for Biological Threats and Special Pathogens, Division 2 (ZBS 2), Highly Pathogenic Microorganisms, Robert Koch Institute, Nordufer 20, 13353, Berlin, Germany;Centre for Biological Threats and Special Pathogens, Division 4 (ZBS 4), Advanced Light and Electron Microscopy, Robert Koch Institute, Nordufer 20, 13353, Berlin, Germany;Department of Genomics and Applied Microbiology & Göttinger Genomics Laboratory, Institute of Microbiology and Genetics, Georg-August-University of Göttingen, Grisebachstr. 8, 37077, Göttingen, Germany;Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, Consultant Laboratory for Legionella, TU Dresden, Fiedlerstr. 42, 01307, Dresden, Germany;Landesgesundheitsamt Baden-Württemberg, Nordbahnhof 135, 70191, Stuttgart, Germany;

关键词: Francisella isolate;    W12-1067;    Cooling tower;    Genome sequence;    Pathogenicity island FPI;    Environmental;    Legionella;    Germany;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2180-14-169

 received in 2014-02-27, accepted in 2014-06-19,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundFrancisella isolates from patients suffering from tularemia in Germany are generally strains of the species F. tularensis subsp. holarctica. To our knowledge, no other Francisella species are known for Germany. Recently, a new Francisella species could be isolated from a water reservoir of a cooling tower in Germany.ResultsWe identified a Francisella sp. (isolate W12-1067) whose 16S rDNA is 99% identical to the respective nucleotide sequence of the recently published strain F. guangzhouensis. The overall sequence identity of the fopA, gyrA, rpoA, groEL, sdhA and dnaK genes is only 89%, indicating that strain W12-1067 is not identical to F. guangzhouensis. W12-1067 was isolated from a water reservoir of a cooling tower of a hospital in Germany. The growth optimum of the isolate is approximately 30°C, it can grow in the presence of 4–5% NaCl (halotolerant) and is able to grow without additional cysteine within the medium. The strain was able to replicate within a mouse-derived macrophage-like cell line. The whole genome of the strain was sequenced (~1.7 mbp, 32.2% G + C content) and the draft genome was annotated. Various virulence genes common to the genus Francisella are present, but the Francisella pathogenicity island (FPI) is missing. However, another putative type-VI secretion system is present within the genome of strain W12-1067.ConclusionsIsolate W12-1067 is closely related to the recently described F. guangzhouensis species and it replicates within eukaryotic host cells. Since W12-1067 exhibits a putative new type-VI secretion system and F. tularensis subsp. holarctica was found not to be the sole species in Germany, the new isolate is an interesting species to be analyzed in more detail. Further research is needed to investigate the epidemiology, ecology and pathogenicity of Francisella species present in Germany.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Rydzewski et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.