Agrobacterium species bacteraemia, Switzerland, 2008 to 2019: a molecular epidemiological study

Abstract

Background Agrobacterium spp. are infrequent agents of bloodstream infections linked to healthcare-associated outbreaks. However, it is unclear if outbreaks also occur across larger geographic areas. Triggered by two local clusters from putative point sources, our aim was to detect potential additional clusters in Switzerland. Methods We performed a nationwide descriptive study of cases in Switzerland based on a prospective surveillance system (Swiss Centre for Antibiotic Resistance, anresis.ch), from 2008 to 2019. We identified patients with Agrobacterium spp. isolated from blood cultures and used a survey to collect clinical-epidemiological information and susceptibility testing results. We performed whole genome sequencing (WGS) of available clinical isolates and determined their relatedness by single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) variant calling analysis. Results We identified a total of 36 cases of Agrobacterium spp. from blood samples over 10 years. Beyond previously known local clusters, no new ones were identified. WGS-based typing was performed on 22 available isolates and showed no clonal relationships between newly identified isolates or to those from the known clusters, with all isolates outside these clusters being at least 50 SNPs apart. Conclusion and relevance Agrobacterium spp. bacteraemia is infrequently detected and, given that it may be healthcare-associated and stem from a point source, occurrence of multiple episodes should entail an outbreak investigation. With the help of the national antimicrobial resistance surveillance system we identified multiple clinical cases of this rare pathogen but found no evidence by WGS that suggested a nation-wide outbreak. Graphical abstract

Plant_SNP_TATA_Z-Tester: A Web Service That Unequivocally Estimates the Impact of Proximal Promoter Mutations on Plant Gene Expression

“…Using the PubMed database [ 44 ], we collected all available experimental datasets reflecting the effects of mutations in plant proximal promoters on gene expression [ 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 ] ( Table 1 ).…”

“…Figure 2 a shows the statistically significant correlations between datasets 1 and 2 ( Table 1 ) corresponding to in vitro gene expression driven by thale cress TBP (atTBP) and human TBP (hsTBP) binding to the eukaryotic TC7 promoter from the T-DNA region of the Ti plasmid of oncogenic Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains [ 45 ]. These strains are capable of infecting both plants [ 54 ] and humans [ 55 , 56 ].…”

“…N : the number of variants of a promoter DNA sequence, each of which were quantitatively characterized in terms of their effects on gene expression. TC7: a eukaryotic promoter within the T-DNA region of the Ti plasmid of oncogenic Agrobacterium tumefaciens strains, which infect plants [ 54 ] and humans [ 55 , 56 ]. gusA : the gene encoding β-glucuronidase; OsPAL : the rice ( Oryza sativa ) gene encoding phenylalanine ammonia-lyase.…”

High Prevalence and Varied Distribution of Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria in the Rhizosphere and Rhizoplane of Citrus medica

“…Several ARB, which are known to be opportunistic pathogens causing infectious diseases in clinical settings, were identified in this study. These included Micrococcus luteus (isolate 2-13-826-2), Agrobacterium radiobacter (isolate 2-8-1) [24], Brevundimonas vesicularis (isolates 2-5-6 and 3-8-91-3r) [25], and B. diminuta (isolates 2-2-9, 5-9-3 and 5-9-9) [26].…”