Abstract
We present here the draft genome sequences of 8 Campylobacter jejuni strains isolated from wild birds. The strains were initially isolated from swabs taken from resident wild birds in the Tokachi area of Japan. The genome sizes range from 1.65 to 1.77 Mbp.
GENOME ANNOUNCEMENT
Campylobacter jejuni is a prominent cause of bacterial food poisoning worldwide (1). It is mainly transmitted to humans through the consumption of contaminated poultry, meat, milk, or water, although other pathways, including through wild birds, have been suggested (2–6). C. jejuni can colonize multiple hosts, including wild birds (7–14), and its genome can acquire exogenous genetic materials, leading to the genomic diversity of this bacterium (15–17). To understand its genetic acquisition and virulence mechanisms in various hosts, it is important to have the genomes from these different hosts. However, there are no genomes available yet from wild birds.
In this study, a total of 8 C. jejuni isolates, obtained from wild birds, were sequenced. Four isolates (designated C. jejuni C1-5523, C2-5524, C10-448, and C12-5524) were isolated from crows (Corvus corona and Corvus macrorhynchos), and four others (C. jejuni P3-2209, P5-2209, P9-2209, and P10-2209) were from pigeons (Streptopelia orientalis and Columba livia). The isolates were analyzed using multilocus sequence typing (MLST). The results showed that two are novel sequence types (ST), namely, ST5523, assigned to C1-5523, and ST5524, found in two isolates, C2-5524 and C12-5524. C10-448 was assigned to ST448, which was previously reported in various sources, including humans (http://www.pubmlst.org). Moreover, isolates from pigeons belong to the ST2209 of the clonal complex ST179 found in wild birds and humans (18).
Genomic DNA was extracted from a bacterial culture using the DNeasy blood and tissue kit (Qiagen, Hilden, Germany), and a genomic DNA (gDNA) sequencing library was prepared using the Nextera XT sample preparation kit (Illumina, San Diego, CA), according to the manufacturer’s instructions. The isolates were sequenced at our laboratory using a MiSeq (Illumina), with a read length of 150 bp.
Paired sequences comprising 1,435,488, 3,540,662, 3,839,026, 2,968,922, 2,338,804, 2,275,220, 1,659,742, and 2,773,330 bp were obtained from C1-5523, C2-5524, C10-448, C12-5524, P3-2209, P5-2209, P9-2209, and P10-2209, respectively. The reads were assembled using CLC Genomics Workbench (CLC bio, Aarhus, Denmark), and contigs of <200 bp were discarded. The characteristics of the 8 draft genome assembly and annotations from the RAST server (19) are shown in Table 1.
TABLE 1 .
Genome characteristics and accession numbers for eight C. jejuni isolates from wild birds
| Isolate no. | No. of contigs | Fold coverage | G+C content (%) | Estimated genome length (bp) | N50 after scaffolding (bp) | Largest contig size (bp) | No. of genes by RAST | GenBank accession no. | Version accession no. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C1-5523 | 132 | 79 | 30.7 | 1,737,665 | 37,086 | 146,205 | 1,779 | JYDX00000000 | JYDX01000000 |
| C2-5524 | 79 | 242 | 30.3 | 1,741,143 | 87,990 | 183,591 | 1,827 | JXTR00000000 | JXTR01000000 |
| C10-448 | 79 | 231 | 30.1 | 1,775,512 | 107,221 | 186,605 | 1,879 | JYDY00000000 | JYDY01000000 |
| C12-5524 | 79 | 207 | 30.3 | 1,748,582 | 71,617 | 191,218 | 1,846 | JYDZ00000000 | JYDZ01000000 |
| P3-2209 | 77 | 147 | 30.9 | 1,679,025 | 153,531 | 331,256 | 1,719 | JYEA00000000 | JYEA01000000 |
| P5-2209 | 50 | 191 | 30.7 | 1,664,340 | 147,170 | 225,387 | 1,718 | JYEB00000000 | JYEB01000000 |
| P9-2209 | 70 | 133 | 30.7 | 1,659,064 | 69,932 | 198,306 | 1,708 | JXTS00000000 | JXTS01000000 |
| P10-2209 | 74 | 183 | 30.7 | 1,669,250 | 96,955 | 200,111 | 1,719 | JYEC00000000 | JYEC01000000 |
Based on Mauve (20) alignments (data not shown), genomes from wild birds share large syntenic regions with that of C. jejuni strain NCTC 11168. However, we have found that C1-5523, C2-5524, and C12-5524 have acquired a tetO gene coding for resistance to tetracycline. Moreover, prophage-like elements similar to CJIE1 and CJIE4 of RM1221 (21) were identified in C2-5524, C10-448, and C12-5524. A type VI secretion system in C10-448 was also identified; however, further studies should be done to confirm its functionality. Interestingly, isolates from pigeons harbor a Cj0742 homologue, a filamentous hemagglutination domain protein that is longer than the normally truncated one found in NCTC 11168, implying a possible high host cell binding ability for these isolates (22).
In conclusion, these draft genomes will provide further insights into the genomic diversity of C. jejuni in determining the unique features of these isolates from wild birds, as well as a better understanding of its potential threat to humans.
Nucleotide sequence accession numbers.
These whole-genome sequences have been deposited in GenBank under the accession numbers listed in Table 1.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was funded by a grant from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), by a grant-in-aid for scientific research from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, and by a grant from the Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare, Japan.
Footnotes
Citation Shyaka A, Kusumoto A, Asakura H, Kawamoto K. 2015. Whole-genome sequences of eight Campylobacter jejuni isolates from wild birds. Genome Announc 3(2):e00315-15. doi:10.1128/genomea.00315-15.
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