Journal article
Streptococcus agalactiae clones infecting humans were selected and fixed through the extensive use of tetracycline
V Da Cunha, MR Davies, PE Douarre, I Rosinski-Chupin, I Margarit, S Spinali, T Perkins, P Lechat, N Dmytruk, E Sauvage, L Ma, B Romi, M Tichit, MJ Lopez-Sanchez, S Descorps-Declere, E Souche, C Buchrieser, P Trieu-Cuot, I Moszer, D Clermont Show all
Nature Communications | NATURE PORTFOLIO | Published : 2014
DOI: 10.1038/ncomms5544
Abstract
Streptococcus agalactiae (Group B Streptococcus, GBS) is a commensal of the digestive and genitourinary tracts of humans that emerged as the leading cause of bacterial neonatal infections in Europe and North America during the 1960s. Due to the lack of epidemiological and genomic data, the reasons for this emergence are unknown. Here we show by comparative genome analysis and phylogenetic reconstruction of 229 isolates that the rise of human GBS infections corresponds to the selection and worldwide dissemination of only a few clones. The parallel expansion of the clones is preceded by the insertion of integrative and conjugative elements conferring tetracycline resistance (TcR). Thus, we pro..
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Awarded by European Commission
Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the French National Research Agency (Grant ANR-08-GENM-027-001 and 2010-PATH-004-02) and by the Labex IBEID. The Institut Pasteur Genopole is a member of France Genomique (ANR10-IBNS-09-08). M. R. D. is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia (565526 and 635250). M. T. G. H. and J.P. were supported by Wellcome Trust grant 098051. This study was in part supported by the European Commission Seventh Framework (grant agreement number 200481) as part of the DEVANI program. We would like to acknowledge Dr Sri Sriprakash and Ms Karen Taylor for their involvement with the Australian GBS strain collection and Alexandre Almeida for critical reading of the manuscript.