Genomic Characterization of Arcobacter butzleri Isolated From Shellfish: Novel Insight Into Antibiotic Resistance and Virulence Determinants

Conclusion Genomic analyses herein performed allowed us to confirm the recently (Pérez-Cataluña et al., 2018a,b) suggested amendment of A. butzleri as Al. butzlerii, comb. nov. Antimicrobial susceptibility tests defined Ab 55 and Ab 6V strains as resistant to vancomycin, tetracyclin, nalidixic acid (only Ab 55 whereas Ab 6V is intermediate resistant), erythromycin, and β-lactam antibiotics. Moreover, in our strains isolated from shellfish, we identified numerous virulence, antibiotic, and heavy metal resistance determinants, also additional to those previously found in the genome sequenced A. butzleri ED-1, isolated from fuel cell, and in the A. butzleri type strain RM 4018, isolated from human gastroenteritis (Miller et al., 2007; Pérez-Cataluña et al., 2018a), leading to hypothesize that shellfish strain may be potentially more virulent. The findings of food-related A. butzleri support both epidemiological surveillance and food safety risk assessment and management in the shellfish industry. Further analysis in our laboratories is ongoing to sequence and characterize other A. butleri strains isolated from shellfish and from other food matrices, in order to obtain an updated description of the species and to clarify the role of genetic endowment, as well as of the ecological niches the strain come from, in the pathogenesis of A. butzleri. The genomic sequences here presented, and the novel insights obtained in the present study apprecia...
Source: Frontiers in Microbiology - Category: Microbiology Source Type: research