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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2006, p. 1429-1436, Vol. 72, No. 2
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/AEM.72.2.1429-1436.2006
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.
Institute for Animal Health, Compton, Newbury, Berkshire RG20 7NN, United Kingdom,1 Dexcel, Ltd., Hamilton, New Zealand,2 University of Waikato, Waikato, New Zealand,3 The Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research, University of Oxford, South Parks Rd., Oxford OX1 3SY, United Kingdom4
Received 30 September 2005/ Accepted 29 November 2005
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Despite the high prevalence of S. uberis mastitis, its epidemiology is not completely understood. S. uberis has been isolated from many extramammary sites on the cow, including the skin surface, gut, tonsils, and genital tract (16). It is also found in high numbers in bedding material, which is a likely source of infection in housed cattle (2). It is assumed that teats become colonized by S. uberis present in the cow's environment and that this can lead to intramammary infection (for a review, see reference 12). Clarification of the importance of these environmental reservoirs to the incidence of mastitis is required for the development of better control measures for this pathogen. The ability to differentiate between specific strains of S. uberis is necessary for such epidemiological studies.
We recently described a multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme for this species, based on the comparative sequence analysis of internal fragments of seven housekeeping genes (4). An internet database was set up to provide worldwide accessibility. This MLST scheme was used to study the population biology of 160 bovine milk isolates from the United Kingdom. The strain collection contained 57 different sequence types (STs), showing that the population was heterogeneous. This is in agreement with a number of other studies using different typing methods to differentiate sets of S. uberis isolates (5, 10, 15, 17). However, the MLST analysis, unlike most previous typing methods, provided useful information about the genetic relationships between the strains. In particular, the majority of the isolates were shown to be related (112 of 160 strains were from the same clonal complex, designated the ST-5 clonal complex). Interestingly, all of the ST-5 complex isolates contained the capsule gene, hasA. The MLST analysis revealed that the population of S. uberis is not strictly clonal but is also evolving by recombination (4).
We describe here the MLST analysis of a collection of S. uberis strains isolated in New Zealand from a range of different sources. The aims of this study were twofold: first, to compare two populations from widely separated geographical locations, and second, to characterize isolates from different sources, including bovine milk, other sites on the cow, and environmental sites.
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Isolates were confirmed as S. uberis by PCR amplification of the 16S rRNA gene with the primers 16S forward (5'-GAGAGTTTGATCCTGGCTCAGGA) and 16S reverse (5'-TTACCGCGGCTGCTGGCACGT), followed by sequence analysis (see below for PCR and sequencing methods). The sequence data obtained were compared to the sequence of S. uberis ATCC 27958 16S rRNA (accession number U41048) by using BlastN. Only isolates with 16S rRNA genes that were 100% identical to that of ATCC 27958 were included in the present study. Detailed information about the isolates, including their source, date of isolation, and, where appropriate, the number and disease status of the cow is available on the S. uberis isolates database at pubmlst.org/suberis. The isolates were entered into the database and given the following identification numbers: 239 to 308, 317 to 357, 362 to 447, and 449 to 504.
Chromosomal DNA purification, PCR, and sequence analysis.
DNA purifications, PCR, and sequencing reactions were performed as described previously (4). Detailed protocols are also available at pubmlst.org/suberis/info/protocol.shtml.
Data analysis.
Sequences were assembled from the resultant chromatograms as previously described (4). For each of the seven loci, each new sequence was assigned as a distinct allele. Each isolate is defined by an allelic profile, which corresponds to the allele numbers at the seven loci in the order arcC, ddl, gki, recP, tdk, tpi, and yqiL. Each unique allelic profile is assigned as an ST. An MLST database containing the sequence of all alleles, the allelic profiles (STs), and detailed information about the S. uberis isolates is maintained at Oxford University and can be found on the S. uberis pages of the MLST website (pubmlst.org/suberis).
The predicted evolutionary descent of the isolates was analyzed by using eBURST (eburst.mlst.net [6]). Statistical comparisons were performed by chi-square analysis of the raw data using Minitab 14 (table in worksheet option).
Detection of hasA gene by PCR.
PCR amplification of the hasA gene (which is required for capsule formation) was performed as described earlier (4).
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TABLE 1. Allele frequencies of isolates from New Zealand and the United Kingdom
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TABLE 2. Characteristics of 253 New Zealand S. uberis isolates: distribution of ST, allelic profile, source, and carriage of hasAa
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Comparison of New Zealand and United Kingdom isolates.
The clonal complexes of the 253 New Zealand isolates and the 160 United Kingdom isolates were compared. In the previous analysis of the United Kingdom isolates, only the ST-5 complex had been identified, but with the addition of two other primary founders to the database, some of the previously unassigned United Kingdom strains were assigned to the new clonal complexes (see the database at pubmlst.org/suberis). The percentage of all isolates from each country that were assigned to the different complexes is shown in Fig. 1. This graph also shows the percentage of New Zealand milk isolates in each complex. This was included to provide a direct comparison with the United Kingdom isolates, which were all isolated from milk. Clearly, the ST-5 complex is dominant in the United Kingdom, with the ST-143 complex being more predominant in New Zealand. However, none of the clonal complexes exclusively contained STs from one country.
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FIG. 1. Frequency of the clonal complexes in the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Results are shown for all New Zealand isolates, New Zealand milk isolates, and all United Kingdom isolates.
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FIG. 2. e-BURST population snapshot of all 160 United Kingdom and 253 New Zealand isolates. The primary founders of the three clonal complexes are indicated. Other ST labels have been removed for improved clarity. The area of the circles correlates with the number of isolates with that ST. Single locus variants are joined by lines.
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From the MLST results and isolate details, it was apparent that the strain collection contained a few duplicates. For example, several isolates were collected at the first milking when the infection was subclinical, and then the same ST was obtained from the same quarter a few days later when the infection had become clinical. Also, five isolates of the same ST were isolated from fecal samples from the same cow. To avoid sampling bias, these replicates were omitted from subsequent analyses (for the milk isolates, those from the first milking were omitted). The 11 isolates removed had the following identification numbers: 317, 321, 322, 329, 333, 491 to 494, 502, and 503. Thus, 242 isolates were included for the analyses shown in Tables 3 to 6.
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TABLE 3. Association between clonal complex and source of isolation
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TABLE 6. Clonal complex, disease status, and capsulation of 77 New Zealand milk isolates
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The frequencies of the most common STs (those isolated at least four times) were examined with respect to their source (Table 4). The most common ST within the collection was ST-91, which was isolated 13 times. ST-91 was common in both milk and environmental isolates and was also found once in the isolates from other cow sites. Other STs present in all three groups were ST-85, ST-105, and ST-129. However, a few STs were only present in one group. For example, STs 112 and 169 were only isolated from the environment, and STs 115 and 116 were isolated only from non-milk cow sites, specifically from fecal samples. ST-94 was unique to the milk group.
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TABLE 4. Association between ST and source of isolationa
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TABLE 5. Association between hasA carriage and clonal complex of 253 New Zealand isolates
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The 253 New Zealand isolates were shown to be highly diverse, with 131 different STs identified. This diversity was higher than that previously found in the United Kingdom milk isolates (57 STs in the collection of 160 isolates), which is likely to be due to the varied source of the isolates. Comparison of the STs identified within the two collections showed that none of the STs were common to both countries. This has probably resulted from a lack of movement of cattle between these nations. Interestingly, the allele frequencies of the two sets of isolates were markedly different, with some alleles being common in one country but completely absent in the other. These alleles have presumably evolved differently subsequent to geographical separation. This could have occurred by mutation or recombination, since our previous phylogenetic analyses of the seven loci showed evidence of recombination within the S. uberis population (4).
The majority of United Kingdom isolates had previously been assigned to one major clonal complex, called the ST-5 complex. A few of the New Zealand isolates (16 isolates and 7 STs) were also assigned to this clonal complex since they shared at least four alleles with ST-5. However, two new clonal complexes were identified in the present study: the ST-143 and ST-86 complexes. The ST-143 complex was the most predominant within the New Zealand population and contained 106 isolates and 44 STs, whereas the ST-86 complex contained 27 New Zealand isolates and 20 STs. Analysis of the previously unassigned United Kingdom isolates showed that a few of these shared at least 4 alleles with ST-143 or ST-86, and these were therefore assigned to one of these new complexes. Clustering analysis using e-BURST (Fig. 2) revealed that, although all three clonal complexes contained STs from both the United Kingdom and New Zealand, the closest genetic relationships were generally between STs from a single country.
Several of the most common New Zealand STs were isolated from the environment, as well as from extramammary bovine sites and milk, which is consistent with intramammary infections resulting from contact with environmental reservoirs. In addition, all three complexes could be isolated from each of the three sources.
Carriage of the capsule gene, hasA, correlated with the clonal complex of the isolates, with all ST-5 and most (97.0%) ST-143 clonal complex members from the New Zealand collection carrying the gene. In contrast, a significant proportion of the ST-86 complex isolates (77.8%) and unassigned isolates (30.6%) were acapsulate. This hasA distribution was similar to that of the United Kingdom isolates, where all of the ST-5 complex isolates carried hasA, but some unassigned isolates lacked the gene (4). Thus, hasA appears to be enriched among the most prevalent clonal complexes in both the United Kingdom (the ST-5 complex) and New Zealand (the ST-143 complex).
Although acapsulate bacteria could be isolated from milk, demonstrating that they can establish intramammary infections, they were mainly associated with subclinical infections in both countries. Consistent with this, the ST-86 complex was disproportionately associated with subclinical mastitis. Interestingly, the carriage of hasA was also shown to correlate with isolation from clinical mastitis in a selection of isolates from Denmark (7). The significance of hasA gene carriage is unclear. The presence of capsule is not thought to play a direct role in pathogenicity, since mutation of hasA did not reduce pathogenicity in experimental infections (7). In addition, a few clinical isolates are hasA-negative. It therefore seems likely that carriage of hasA correlates with the presence of other genes involved in virulence. The high prevalence of the ST-5 and ST-143 complexes in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, respectively, suggests that carriage of hasA and/or other virulence genes may have contributed to bacterial survival and clonal expansion. A similar finding was reported for Staphylococcus aureus, in which the presence of both the cna and tst virulence genes was associated with prevalent lineages rather than sporadic clones (1).
In conclusion, we have shown by MLST that S. uberis has evolved into distinct populations in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. In total, three major clonal complexes have been identified, with highly different geographic prevalences. All three complexes were readily isolated from the environment, milk, and extramammary bovine sites. However, the observed differences in isolation rates of certain STs and complexes from clinical and subclinical cases of mastitis suggest that they may differ in their pathogenicity. Future work to determine which putative virulence genes in addition to hasA correlate with clonal complex and/or disease status will help to identify the bacterial factors associated with mastitis. Such studies should also facilitate the rational choice of suitable strains for vaccine development.
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