Acinetobacter baumannii from Samples of Commercially Reared Turkeys: Genomic Relationships, Antimicrobial and Biocide Susceptibility

Schmitz, Anna; Hanke, Dennis; Lüschow, Dörte; Schwarz, Štefan; Higgins, Paul G.; Feßler, Andrea T.

doi:10.3390/microorganisms11030759

Cited by 4 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 75 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Material S1). Similarly, samples from commercially reared turkey chicks are heavily loaded with A. baumannii at the first day of life, but this load vanishes during life (103). Where permanent establishment and local spread is not possible, patrolling in the air appears as an efficient strategy to identify the next opportunity for colonization.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the ecology ofAcinetobacter baumannii– jet stream rider and opportunist by nature

Wilharm,

Skiebe,

Łopińska

et al. 2024

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The natural reservoirs of the nosocomial pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii are not well defined. We previously identified white storks as a model system to study the ecology of A. baumannii. Having screened more than 1,300 white stork nestlings over a period of six years across different regions of Poland and Germany (overall isolation rate of ~29.5%), including food chain analyses and environmental samplings, we come up with a detailed picture of the dynamics and diversity of A. baumannii in their natural habitats. Adult storks, rather than being stably colonized with strains of A. baumannii which are successively transferred to their offspring, instead initially encounter these bacteria while foraging. Among their common food sources, consisting of earthworms, small mammals, and insects, we identified earthworms as a potential source of A. baumannii, but more so the associated soil as well as plant roots. Through this, hotspot soil and compost habitats were identified which enable population dynamics to be studied over the course of the year. We demonstrate that sterilized plant material is rapidly colonized by airborne A. baumannii suggesting they patrol to search for novel habitats, being opportunist by nature. The prevalence of A. baumannii exhibited a strong seasonality and peaked during summer. The strains we collected in Poland and Germany represent more than 50% of the worldwide known diversity in terms of the intrinsic OXA-51-like beta-lactamase. A set of ~400 genomes was determined and compared to a diverse set of publicly available genomes. Our pan-genome estimate of the species (~51,000 unique genes) more than doubles the amount proposed by previous studies. Core-genome based phylogenetic analyses illustrated numerous links between wildlife isolates and hospital strains, including ancient as well as recent intercontinental transfer. Our data further suggest massive radiation within the species early after its emergence, matching with human activity during the Neolithic. Deforestation in particular seemed to set the stage for this bloom as we found that forests do not provide conducive conditions for the proliferation of A. baumannii. In contrast, wet and nutrient-rich soil alongside rivers sampled during the summer can yield an isolation rate of ~30%. Linking published work on the interaction between A. baumannii and fungi and on aspergillosis as a major cause of mortality in white stork nestlings to our findings, we hypothesized that fungi and A. baumannii share a long history of coevolution. Interaction studies revealed the capability of A. baumannii to adhere to fungal spores and to suppress spore germination. Taken together, the intrinsic resistance endowment and potential to acquire antibiotic resistance can be explained by coevolution with antibiotic-producing fungi and other microorganisms within soil, and resistance to desiccation stress and radiation can be interpreted in the light of intercontinental hitchhiking through fungal spores.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the ecology ofAcinetobacter baumannii– jet stream rider and opportunist by nature

Wilharm,

Skiebe,

Łopińska

et al. 2024

Preprint

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Epidemiological and genomic analysis of Acinetobacter baumannii strains from retailed raw meat

Hamze,

Garcia-Fierro,

Drapeau

et al. 2025

Heliyon

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Characterization of the diversity of type IV secretion system-encoding plasmids in Acinetobacter

Nasser,

Gaudreau,

Lubega

et al. 2024

Emerging Microbes & Infections

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The multi-drug resistant pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii has gained global attention as an important clinical challenge. Owing to its ability to survive on surfaces, its capacity for horizontal gene transfer, and its resistance to front-line antibiotics, A. baumannii has established itself as a successful pathogen. Bacterial conjugation is a central mechanism for pathogen evolution. The epidemic multidrug-resistant A. baumannii ACICU harbours a plasmid encoding a Type IV Secretion System (T4SS) with homology to the E. coli F-plasmid, and plasmids with homologous gene clusters have been identified in several A. baumannii sequence types. However the genetic and host strain diversity, global distribution, and functional ability of this group of plasmids is not fully understood. Using systematic analysis, we show that pACICU2 belongs to a group of almost 120 T4SS-encoding plasmids within four different species of Acinetobacter and one strain of Klebsiella pneumoniae from human and environmental origin, and globally distributed across 20 countries spanning 4 continents. Genetic diversity was observed both outside and within the T4SS-encoding cluster, and 47% of plasmids harboured resistance determinants, with two plasmids harbouring eleven. Conjugation studies with an extensively drug-resistant (XDR) strain showed that the XDR plasmid could be successfully transferred to a more divergent A. baumanii , and transconjugants exhibited the resistance phenotype of the plasmid. Collectively, this demonstrates that these T4SS-encoding plasmids are globally distributed and more widespread among Acinetobacter than previously thought, and that they represent an important potential reservoir for future clinical concern.

show abstract

Acinetobacter baumannii from Samples of Commercially Reared Turkeys: Genomic Relationships, Antimicrobial and Biocide Susceptibility

Cited by 4 publications

References 75 publications

On the ecology ofAcinetobacter baumannii– jet stream rider and opportunist by nature

On the ecology ofAcinetobacter baumannii– jet stream rider and opportunist by nature

Epidemiological and genomic analysis of Acinetobacter baumannii strains from retailed raw meat

Characterization of the diversity of type IV secretion system-encoding plasmids in Acinetobacter

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About