Apparent nosocomial adaptation of Enterococcus faecalis predates the modern hospital era

Anna K. Pöntinen (), Janetta Top, Sergio Arredondo-Alonso, Gerry Tonkin-Hill, Ana R. Freitas, Carla Novais, Rebecca A. Gladstone, Maiju Pesonen, Rodrigo Meneses, Henri Pesonen, John A. Lees, Dorota Jamrozy, Stephen D. Bentley, Val F. Lanza, Carmen Torres, Luisa Peixe, Teresa M. Coque, Julian Parkhill, Anita C. Schürch, Rob J. L. Willems and Jukka Corander ()
Additional contact information
Anna K. Pöntinen: University of Oslo
Janetta Top: University Medical Center Utrecht
Sergio Arredondo-Alonso: University of Oslo
Gerry Tonkin-Hill: Wellcome Sanger Institute
Ana R. Freitas: University of Porto
Carla Novais: University of Porto
Rebecca A. Gladstone: University of Oslo
Maiju Pesonen: Oslo University Hospital Research Support Services
Rodrigo Meneses: University Medical Center Utrecht
Henri Pesonen: University of Oslo
John A. Lees: Imperial College London
Dorota Jamrozy: Wellcome Sanger Institute
Stephen D. Bentley: Wellcome Sanger Institute
Val F. Lanza: Bioinformatics Unit, IRYCIS
Carmen Torres: University of La Rioja
Luisa Peixe: University of Porto
Teresa M. Coque: Ramón y Cajal Institute for Health Research Ramón y Cajal University Hospital
Julian Parkhill: Wellcome Sanger Institute
Anita C. Schürch: University Medical Center Utrecht
Rob J. L. Willems: University Medical Center Utrecht
Jukka Corander: University of Oslo

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Abstract Enterococcus faecalis is a commensal and nosocomial pathogen, which is also ubiquitous in animals and insects, representing a classical generalist microorganism. Here, we study E. faecalis isolates ranging from the pre-antibiotic era in 1936 up to 2018, covering a large set of host species including wild birds, mammals, healthy humans, and hospitalised patients. We sequence the bacterial genomes using short- and long-read techniques, and identify multiple extant hospital-associated lineages, with last common ancestors dating back as far as the 19th century. We find a population cohesively connected through homologous recombination, a metabolic flexibility despite a small genome size, and a stable large core genome. Our findings indicate that the apparent hospital adaptations found in hospital-associated E. faecalis lineages likely predate the “modern hospital” era, suggesting selection in another niche, and underlining the generalist nature of this nosocomial pathogen.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21749-5 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-21749-5

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-21749-5

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().