Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Feb 22;14(1):4347.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-54750-1.

Comparative pangenomic analysis of Campylobacter fetus isolated from Spanish bulls and other mammalian species

Nerea Pena-Fernández #  1   2 , Medelin Ocejo #  2 , Linda van der Graaf-van Bloois  3 , Jose Luís Lavín  4 , Nekane Kortabarria  2 , Esther Collantes-Fernández  5 , Ana Hurtado  6 , Gorka Aduriz  7
Affiliations

Comparative pangenomic analysis of Campylobacter fetus isolated from Spanish bulls and other mammalian species

Nerea Pena-Fernández et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Campylobacter fetus comprises two closely related mammal-associated subspecies: Campylobacter fetus subsp. fetus (Cff) and Campylobacter fetus subsp. venerealis (Cfv). The latter causes bovine genital campylobacteriosis, a sexually-transmitted disease endemic in Spain that results in significant economic losses in the cattle industry. Here, 33 C. fetus Spanish isolates were whole-genome sequenced and compared with 62 publicly available C. fetus genomes from other countries. Genome-based taxonomic identification revealed high concordance with in silico PCR, confirming Spanish isolates as Cff (n = 4), Cfv (n = 9) and Cfv biovar intermedius (Cfvi, n = 20). MLST analysis assigned the Spanish isolates to 6 STs, including three novel: ST-76 and ST-77 for Cfv and ST-78 for Cff. Core genome SNP phylogenetic analysis of the 95 genomes identified multiple clusters, revealing associations at subspecies and biovar level between genomes with the same ST and separating the Cfvi genomes from Spain and other countries. A genome-wide association study identified pqqL as a Cfv-specific gene and a potential candidate for more accurate identification methods. Functionality analysis revealed variations in the accessory genome of C. fetus subspecies and biovars that deserve further studies. These results provide valuable information about the regional variants of C. fetus present in Spain and the genetic diversity and predicted functionality of the different subspecies.

Keywords: Campylobacter fetus; Gene function; Genome-wide association study (GWAS); Pangenome; Phylogeny; Whole-genome sequencing (WGS).

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Pangenome analysis of 95 mammal-associated C. fetus genomes. (A) Dendrogram representing the grouping of the 95 C. fetus genomes according to the distribution of their accessory genes. (B) Roary matrix representing the complete genetic profile of each of the genomes based on presence/absence of core and accessory genes. Cfvi, C. fetus subsp. venerealis biovar intermedius isolates from other countries; Cfvi_ES, C. fetus subsp. venerealis biovar intermedius from Spain; Cff, C. fetus subsp. fetus; Cfv, C. fetus subsp. venerealis.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Global phylogeny of Campylobacter fetus based on core genome SNP analysis of 95 C. fetus genomes. First (outer) ring represents country of origin of the strains. Second ring represents the isolation source of strains (red, bovine; yellow, humans; blue, ovine). Numbers in the third ring represent the MLST sequence type (ST). The fourth ring (coloured lines) represents the taxonomic assignation at the subspecies level (Cfv—C. fetus subsp. venerealis, green; Cfvi—C. fetus subsp. venerealis biovar intermedius, red; Cff—C. fetus subsp. fetus, blue). Isolates sequenced in this study are labelled in red.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Principal component analysis based on the functional analysis of the accessory gene content of the genomes of C. fetus subspecies and biovar. Cfv—C. fetus subsp. venerealis; Cfvi—C. fetus subsp. venerealis biovar intermedius; Cff—C. fetus subsp. fetus.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. van Bergen M, van Putten JPM, Dingle KE, Blaser MJ, Wagenaar JA. Isolation, identification, subspecies differentiation, and typing of Campylobacter fetus. In: Nachamkin I, Szymanski CM, Blaser MJ, editors. Campylobacter. ASM Press; 2008. pp. 213–225.
    1. Fitzgerald C, et al. Campylobacter fetus subsp. testudinum subsp. nov., isolated from humans and reptiles. Int. J. Syst. Evol. Microbiol. 2014;64:2944–2948. - PubMed
    1. Gilbert MJ, et al. Comparative genomics of Campylobacter fetus from reptiles and mammals reveals divergent evolution in host-associated lineages. Genome Biol. Evol. 2016;8:2006–2019. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Sprenger H, Zechner EL, Gorkiewicz G. So close and yet so far—Molecular microbiology of Campylobacter fetus subspecies. Eur. J. Microbiol. Immunol. 2012;2:66–75. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Nadin-Davis SA, et al. A comparison of fourteen fully characterized mammalian-associated Campylobacter fetus isolates suggests that loss of defense mechanisms contribute to high genomic plasticity and subspecies evolution. PeerJ. 2021;9:e10586. - PMC - PubMed

Supplementary concepts