Abstract
As a leading cause of bacterial-derived gastroenteritis worldwide, Campylobacter jejuni has a significant impact on human health in both the developed and developing worlds. Despite its prevalence as a human pathogen, the source of these infections remains poorly understood due to the mutation frequency of the organism and past limitations of whole genome analysis. Recent advances in both whole genome sequencing and computational methods have allowed for the high-resolution analysis of intraspecies diversity, leading multiple groups to postulate that these approaches may be used to identify the sources of Campylobacter jejuni infection. To address this hypothesis, our group conducted a regionally and temporally restricted sampling of agricultural and environmental Campylobacter sources and compared isolated C. jejuni genomes to those that caused human infections in the same region during the same time period. Through a network analysis comparing genomes from various sources, we found that human C. jejuni isolates clustered with those isolated from cattle and chickens, indicating these as potential sources of human infection in the region.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 571064 |
| Journal | Frontiers in Microbiology |
| Volume | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 5 2020 |
Funding
The authors would like to thank the Tennessee Department of Health, especially Steffany Cavallo and Dr. John Dunn, for graciously supplying human isolates for the time period described. The authors also would like to thank Dr. Andrea Lear, Dr. Meggan Graves, and Heidi Wyrosdick from the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine for generously providing animal fecal samples. Funding. Funding was provided by the Joint Directed Research and Development (JDRD) initiative between the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Labs (ORNL) JDRD# R013318090 awarded to JJ. Funding also came from University of Tennessee startup funds awarded to JJ. Additional funding was provided by the Plant Microbe Interface (PMI) Scientific Focus Area by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the DOE Office of Science and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program, project 8321. AL acknowledges that this project was supported in part by appointments to the Higher Education Research Experiences (HERE) Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE). ORISE is managed by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This manuscript has been co-authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan). Funding was provided by the Joint Directed Research and Development (JDRD) initiative between the University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Labs (ORNL) JDRD# R013318090 awarded to JJ. Funding also came from University of Tennessee startup funds awarded to JJ. Additional funding was provided by the Plant Microbe Interface (PMI) Scientific Focus Area by the Office of Biological and Environmental Research in the DOE Office of Science and the Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s, Laboratory Directed Research and Development (LDRD) program, project 8321. AL acknowledges that this project was supported in part by appointments to the Higher Education Research Experiences (HERE) Program at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, administered by the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE). ORISE is managed by Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU) for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). This manuscript has been co-authored by UT-Battelle, LLC under Contract No. DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the U.S. Department of Energy. The United States Government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the United States Government retains a non-exclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for United States Government purposes. The Department of Energy will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| DOE Public Access Plan | |
| Joint Directed Research and Development | |
| Plant Microbe Interface | |
| Tennessee Department of Health | |
| United States Government | |
| U.S. Department of Energy | |
| Biological and Environmental Research | |
| Oak Ridge Associated Universities | |
| Oak Ridge National Laboratory | R013318090 |
| Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education | |
| Laboratory Directed Research and Development | 8321 |
| University of Tennessee | |
| College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee | |
| UT-Battelle | DE-AC05-00OR22725 |
Keywords
- Campylobacter (C. jejuni)
- agricultural isolates
- environmental isolation
- human campylobacteriosis
- whole-genome sequencing (WGS)