Open AccessComparative Screening of Digestion Tract Toxic Genes in Proteus mirabilis
Author(s) -
Xiaolu Shi,
Yiman Lin,
Yaqun Qiu,
Yinghui Li,
Min Jiang,
Qiongcheng Chen,
Yixiang Jiang,
Jun Yuan,
Hong Cao,
Qinghua Hu,
ShengHe Huang
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
plos one
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.99
H-Index - 332
ISSN - 1932-6203
DOI - 10.1371/journal.pone.0151873
Subject(s) - proteus mirabilis , virulence , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , genome , pathogen , diarrhea , antibiotics , outbreak , gastrointestinal tract , bacteria , genetics , medicine , virology , escherichia coli , pathology , biochemistry
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.