Skip to main content
SLU:s publikationsdatabas (SLUpub)

Sammanfattning

Anthrax is a bacterial disease primarily affecting grazing animals but it can also cause severe disease in humans. We have used genomic epidemiology to study microevolution of the bacterium in a confined outbreak in cattle which involved emergence of an antibiotic-resistant phenotype. At the time of death, the animals contained a heterogeneous population of Single Nucleotide Variants (SNVs), some being clonal but most being subclonal. We found that independent isolates from the same carcass had similar levels of SNV differences as isolates from different animals. Furthermore the relative levels of subclonal populations were different in different locations in the same carcass. The heterogeneity appeared to be derived in part from heterogeneity in the infectious dose. The resistance phenotype was linked to clonal mutations in an anti-sigma factor gene and in one case was preceded by an acquisition of a hypermutator phenotype. In another animal, small subclonal populations were observed with counteracting mutations that had turned off the resistance genes. In summary, this study shows the importance of accounting for both acquired and inherited heterogeneity when doing high-resolution infection tracing and when estimating the risks associated with penicillin treatment.

Publicerad i

PLoS ONE
2014, volym: 9, nummer: 2, artikelnummer: e89112
Utgivare: PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE

SLU författare

Associerade SLU-program

AMR: Bakterier

Globala målen (SDG)

SDG3 God hälsa och välbefinnande

UKÄ forskningsämne

Medicinsk biovetenskap
Genetik och genomik

Publikationens identifierare

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0089112

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/67405