# Comparative genomics of two Shewanella xiamenensis strains isolated from a pilgrim before and during travels to the Hajj

Thongpan Leangapichart, Linda Hadjadj, Philippe Gautret, Jean-Marc Rolain

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Thongpan Leangapichart, Linda Hadjadj, Philippe Gautret, Jean-Marc Rolain. Comparative genomics of two Shewanella xiamenensis strains isolated from a pilgrim before and during travels to the Hajj. Gut Pathogens, 2021, 13 (1), 10.1186/s13099-021-00404-w. http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13099-021-00404-w

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# Comparative genomics of two *Shewanella xiamenensis* strains isolated from a pilgrim before and during travels to the Hajj

Thongpan Leangapichart¹,², Linda Hadjadj¹,², Philippe Gautret¹,² and Jean-Marc Rolain¹,²*

**Abstract**

**Background:** *Shewanella xiamenensis* has been reported in water environment and in patients and can act as the originator of oxacillinase in gram-negative bacteria. In order to assess genome plasticity and its functional properties related diarrhea symptoms in pilgrim, comparisons of draft genome sequences of the two isolates were conducted with other closely related genomes.

**Results:** We isolated *S. xiamenensis* 111B and 111D strains from a pilgrim before travels to the Hajj and during travels with diarrhea symptom, respectively. Whole-genome sequencing showed that draft genome size of 111B strain was 5,008,191 bp, containing 49 kb of a putative plasmid. The genome size of 111D was 4,964,295 bp containing 225 kb of a putative plasmid that shared the backbone sequences with the hospital wastewater strain T17. Comparatively, two Hajj strains are identical at 97.3% identity and 98.7% coverage. They are closely related to river water strain, AS58 by SNPs analysis. Notably, a novel *bla*<sub>OXA-48</sub> allele *bla*<sub>OXA-547</sub> was identified in 111D, sharing 99.5% identity with *bla*<sub>OXA-546</sub> and *bla*<sub>OXA-894</sub>. Multiple copies of virulence specific genes, such as capsular polysaccharide biosynthesis, O-antigen and *lasB* (vibriolysin related gene) have been identified specifically in 111D, but absent in 111B strain.

**Conclusions:** The whole genome sequences of *S. xiamenensis* strain 111B and 111D, including comparative genomic analysis, highlight here the potential for virulence factors that might be related to the cause of diarrhea in humans and also indicate the possible acquisition of pathogenic bacteria, including antibiotic resistance genes or plasmids during the Hajj.

**Keywords:** *Shewanella*, Plasmid, Travelers, Comparative genomics

**Background**

The genus *Shewanella* includes gram negative, oxidase-
positive, catalase-positive, motile, facultative anaerobe
bacilli. They are widely distributed in aquatic environ-
ments, including marine and freshwater environments
[1]. Moreover, the species in the genus, such as *S. putre-
faciens* and *S. algae*, that cause diseases in humans were

reported in clinical settings [2]. However, reports of
*S. xiamenensis* causing human infections are rare, but
nosocomial peripancreatic infection and intestinal car-
riage have been reported [3]. *S. xiamenensis* is known to
encode chromosomal OXA-48-like carbapenemases and
quinolone resistance gene that could transfer to other
bacterial species [4]. Studies have shown that antibiotic
resistance found in human or clinical isolates is associ-
ated with resistance mechanisms or pathogenic bacteria
found in food, animals and environments [5]. Previously,
whole-genome sequence of one *S. xiamenensis* strain T17
harboring plasmid was reported from hospital effluents
in Algeria [6]. This plasmid is composed of transposon

<footnote>*Correspondence: jean-marc.rolain@univ-amu.fr
¹ Aix Marseille Univ, IRD, APHM, MEPHI, IHU Méditerranée Infection, Faculté de Médecine Et de Pharmacie, 19-21 Boulevard Jean Moulin, 13385 Marseille CEDEX 05, France
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article</footnote>
with antibiotic resistance (AMR) genes that may circulate in the environment and transmit to humans and animals. Until now, there were two well-described available genomes of *S. xiamenensis*, strain BC01 and T17 harboring a plasmid in their genomes, which reported from sea water and hospital water environments [6, 7]. However, isolates from a single human with different time periods have not been studied and sequenced. Here, we sequenced the entire genome of two strains of *S. xiamenensis* recovered from rectal swab samples of a Hajj pilgrim. A comparative genomics analysis was performed between environmental and human strains to describe the genomic diversity among *S. xiamenensis* genomes.

# Materials and methods

## Strain isolation and characterization

The rectal swab samples were obtained from a 73-year-old Moroccan woman who was part of a group travelling to the 2013 Hajj from France that was participating to a cohort study aiming at evaluating acquisition of antibiotic resistant bacteria [8]. The first swab was collected before travel on September 22, 2013. During her stay in Saudi Arabia, she presented with acute diarrhea with nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. Her rectal sample was collected at symptom onset on October 7, 2013. Then, she took ciprofloxacin (500 mg twice a day for 3 days) prescribed by a medical doctor and symptoms resolved. She was also sampled on return (October 24, 2013). Real-time PCR targeting carbapenemase genes was performed on rectal swab samples and confirmed by the standard PCR and sequencing as previously described [9]. The PCR positive swabs were then screened for carbapenemase-resistant strains by culture on MacConkey agar with 0.5 mg/L of ertapenem (bioMérieux, Marcy-l'Étoile, France). Species were identified by MALDI-TOF MS (Microflex; Bruker Daltonics, Bremen, Germany) and refined using whole-genome sequences (see below). *S. xiamenensis* strain 111B and 111D were isolated from the pre-travel sample and from the sample collected at symptom onset, respectively. Antibiotic susceptibility testing (AST) was performed using disk diffusion method. MICs of imipenem, meropenem, and ertapenem were determined by Etest method (AB Biodisk, Solna, Sweden). The results were interpreted according EUCAST guidelines (http://www.eucast.org). Carbapenemase production test was carried out with the modified CarbaNP test [10].

## Genome sequencing and annotation

DNA extraction was performed using an EZ1 BioRobot instrument (Qiagen S.A., Courtaboeuf, France) according to the manufacturer's instructions. Library preparation and whole-genome sequencing (WGS) were performed using Nextera XT DNA sample prep kit and

Illumina MiSeq platform (Illumina, San Diego, USA). The sequencing method used a 2×250 bp paired-end approach, which produced a genome coverage of 74× for strain 111B and 108.8× for strain 111D. The assembly of the pair reads was made using SPAdes version 3.9.0 with default parameters. After filtering out of contigs less than 500 bp, the remaining contigs were launched in a multi-draft based analysis, MeDuSa scaffolder [11] and ProgressiveMauve [12] using the complete genome sequence of *S. xiamenensis* strain T17 as a reference. Assembled sequences were annotated using through PATRIC server [13]. Genomic islands (GIs), prophages and virulence factors were predicted by IslandViewer4 [14], PHASTER tool [15], Virulence Factor Database (VFDB) [16], respectively. AMR genes were identified by BLAST search against ARG-annot database [17]. Putative plasmid-derived contigs were predicted using cBar with default setting [12] and blasted against NCBI database with the cut-off 40% identity and 70% coverage.

## Comparative genomic analysis

A comparative genomic analysis was performed among the two Hajj *S. xiamenensis* strains and the other 15 strains of *Shewanella* sp. which are the closest representative genomes identified by Mash/MinHash [18] as part of PATRIC annotation (Additional file 1: Table S1). Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI) was calculated using the enveomics calculators [19]. A single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) based phylogeny tree was constructed based on the alignment of core genome through Parsnp [20] using all available genomes, with *S. xiamenensis* T17 as a reference. The phylogenetic trees were then visualized and annotated in iTOL [21]. Moreover, cluster of ortholog groups (COGs) were constructed from BLASTP results using Proteinortho [22] with default parameters. Plasmid comparisons were conducted using plasmid pSx1 as a reference and generated by BLASTN using BRIG (BLAST Ring Image Generator) version 0.95 [23].

## Quality assurance

A single colony of each 111B and 111D was repeatedly subcultured to blood agar to obtain pure culture. Strain identification was verified through 16S rRNA and gyrB sequencing. After genome sequencing, 16S rDNA gene was extracted and identified by the RNAmmer and then confirmed by blasted against NCBI database.

# Results and discussion

## Real-time PCR detection in rectal swab samples and phenotypic properties of *S. xiamenensis*

Two rectal swab samples of the same pilgrim were *bla*<sub>OXA-48</sub> positive by real-time PCR and confirmed by sequencing. We found that *bla*<sub>OXA-48</sub> was detected in
pre-travel sample and bla<sub>OXA-48-like</sub> (bla<sub>OXA-547</sub>) was detected in during-travel sample. After recovering, bla<sub>OXA-48</sub> positive isolates by culture, 16S rDNA and gyrB sequences of two strains showed 99.9% and 98% identity with S. xiamenensis strain S4. Strain 111B and 111D contained the bla<sub>OXA-48</sub> gene and a new variant, bla<sub>OXA-547</sub>, which is identical to the gene identified in the rectal swab samples. The OXA-547, found in 111D shared 99.25% amino acid identity with OXA-894 (MN525568) and OXA-546 (KY682756) with two (K23R, A33V) and three (K23R, A33V, A45V) amino acid changes, respectively. Two strains exhibited the activity of carbapenemase enzyme by modified CarbaNP test. MICs of imipenem, meropenem and ertapenem for 111B were 0.5, 0.25, and 1 mg/L, respectively and for 111D were 0.5, 0.38, 1.5 mg/L, respectively. Strains 111B and 111D showed identical sensitivity results for most antibiotics, including gentamicin, tobramycin, amikacin, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, cefotaxime, cefoxitin, rifampicin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, and colistin but showed resistance

results for amoxicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, ticarcillin-clavulanic acid. Although bla<sub>OXA-546</sub> was previously reported in the plasmid of S. xiamenensis Sh1 isolated from saltmarsh plants in the USA [24]. The bla<sub>OXA-48-like</sub> in 111B and 111D were chromosomal mediated genes inserted between the LysR family transcriptional regulator and the C15 gene (Fig. 1a) similar to previously published S. xiamenensis sx20 which carried chromosomal mediated bla<sub>OXA-894</sub> gene [25].

## General genome features of S. xiamenensis strain 111B and 111D

The 111B and 111D were assembled into 4.96 Mb and 4.74 Mb (Fig. 1b), respectively (excluding the putative plasmid sequences) with a G+C average content of 46.25%. A total number of 4,646 coding sequences (CDSs), 10 rRNAs, and 98 tRNAs were detected in the genome of 111B. The coding capacity of 111D genome accounts for 4,665 CDSs, 10 rRNAs, and 99 tRNAs. Pairwise comparison showed that the two Hajj strains shared

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>**Fig. 1** a Genetic context of bla<sub>OXA48</sub> genes in 111B and 111D. b Circular representation of 111B and 111D chromosome</figcaption></figure>
approximately 83% of their genomes (3,883 COGs). The 690 and 483 specific COGs were identified in 111B and 111D, respectively. Approximately 48% of these specific orthologous genes were predicted as GIs (24 islands in 111B, 23 islands in 111D) and prophage regions (52 genes in 111B, 63 genes in 111D). This suggested the extensive horizontal gene transfer events in genomic islands and prophage regions of two Hajj isolates.

## Plasmid content

Based on short-read based assembly and comparative genomic analysis using pSx1 as a reference, each Hajj pilgrim isolate 111B and 111D was predicted to carry at least one plasmid (Additional file 2: Figure S1) about 49 Kb (pSx111B; 65 CDSs) and 225 Kb (pSx111D; 276 CDSs), respectively. The pSx111B plasmid encoded cobalamin, ferredoxin biosynthesis proteins, IncF plasmid conjugative transfer pilus assembly protein (Tra C, U, W, N), including several hypothetical proteins of unknown function. On the contrary, pSx111D shared a plasmid backbone (145/268.4 Kb) with pSx1 of S. xiamenensis T17 (hospital effluent isolate) except the region of Tn6297 (Additional file 2: Figure S1b) containing anti-biotic-resistance genes, transcriptional regulators of the AraC family, and alpha/beta hydrolase which was previously reported [6]. Moreover, we further investigated the putative plasmids by conjugation experiments and no transconjugants were obtained.

## Comparative analysis with other Shewanella sp. strains

Whole genome comparison of the two Hajj pilgrim strains with other 15 closely related Shewanella genomes indicated a close relationship among the strains (ANI with 97–100%). Strain 111B showed high genome identity with S2_009_000_R2_72 (ANI with 97.39%), a strain isolated from hospital NICU surfaces and sink [26] where 111D was genetically more similar to AS58 (ANI with 97.87%), a strain isolated from river water [27]. Whereas ANI value between two Hajj strains is 97.33% suggesting the presence of two different clones. Thus, this pilgrim may have acquired the strain 111D during the Hajj. Moreover, SNP-based tree showed that 111B and 111D were closely related to AS58 (river water isolate) (Fig. 2).

## Virulence factors

Both strains contain several types of virulence factors including mannose-sensitive hemagglutinin, flagella-mediated motility, endotoxin, which are distributed in GI regions. Specific virulence factors of the two Hajj strains were also compared to find potential disease genes in this pilgrim (Fig. 2). In genome 111B, lipooligosaccharide (LOS) related gene was also common in BC01 and ZYW6, whereas cation efflux system protein CusC precursor (ibeB) was specific in 111B and POL2. This could be related to the niche adaptation of bacteria to colonize different types of hosts or environments [28] and to the copper resistance in bacteria [29]. In genome 111D, the genes wbfTUY, involved in capsular

<figure><img src="image_4.png" /></figure>
polysaccharide biosynthesis in *Vibrio vulnificus* [30] shared among 111D, T17, AS58, and BC01. Multiple copies (5 genes) of O-antigen associated genes of *Vibrio* species (> 80% identity) were common in 111D, T17, and *S. oneidensis* S2_009_000_R2_72. However, *lasB* (vibriolysin related), was specific in 111D and T17. The *whfTUY* and O-antigen associated genes were related to bacterial persistence to survive in host cells or severe environments [31]. Notably, a protease related genes (*lasB*) was also a virulence related factor in *Pseudomonas* spp. [32] which might be related to diarrhea symptom in this pilgrim.

## Conclusions

In conclusion, we report in this study the two genome sequences of *S. xiamenensis* in a Hajj pilgrim. The analysis of these genomes allows us to broaden our knowledge of the plasticity of *Shewanella* genomes and to find evidence of their pathogenicity. This study does not allow us to determine whether 111D was present in the individual all along or whether it was acquired during the pilgrimage. However, the strain 111D showed an identical sequence of *bla*<sub>OXA-547</sub> in the rectal swab samples collected during travel. Thus, acquisition of virulence clone, antibiotic resistance genes and plasmid might occur from several issues during the Hajj such as facing with overcrowded conditions, lacking of potable water, and exposing with poor sanitary condition [33].

## Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1186/s13099-021-00404-w.

**Additional file 1: Table S1.** Genome features of *S. xiamenensis* 111B and 111D as compared to other related Shewanella species.

**Additional file 2: Figure S1.** Genome and plasmid comparisons.

## Acknowledgements

The authors thank CookieTrad for proofreading the text and Noemie Labas for her technical assistance.

## Authors' contributions

TL, LH, PG, and JMR designed the study. TL and LH performed the laboratory work. TL did the bioinformatics analysis and analyzed the data. TL and LH wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

## Funding

This work was supported by the French Government under the « Investissements d'avenir» (Investments for the Future) program managed by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR, fr: National Agency for Research), (reference: Méditerranée Infection 10-IAHU-03). This work was supported by Région Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur and European funding FEDER PRIMI.

## Availability of data and materials

This project was deposited at GenBank under the accession MWWP00000000 and MWWO00000000. The novel variants *bla*<sub>OXA547</sub> was available under

BioProject accession number PRJNA313047 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bioproject/PRJNA313047), with NCBI Reference Sequence: NG_054693.1.

## Ethics approval and consent to participate

This study was approved by our Institutional Review Board (July 23, 2013; reference No. 2013-A00961-44) and by the Saudi Ministry of Health ethics committee.

## Consent for publication

Not applicable.

## Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

## Author details

¹ Aix Marseille Univ, IRD, APHM, MEPHI, IHU Méditerranée Infection, Faculté de Médecine Et de Pharmacie, 19-21 Boulevard Jean Moulin, 13385 Marseille CEDEX 05, France. ² IHU Méditerranée Infection, 19-21 Boulevard Jean Moulin, 13385 Marseille CEDEX 05, France.

Received: 16 November 2020 Accepted: 2 February 2021

Published online: 09 February 2021

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