Ecological Overlap and Horizontal Gene Transfer in Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis

• DOI: 10.1093/gbe/evv066
• Publication Date: 2015-04-18T00:51:39Z
• Authors: Guillaume Méric; Maria Miragaia; Mark de Been; Koji Yahara; Ben Pascoe; Leonardos Mageiros; Jane Mikhail; Llinos G. Harris; Thomas S. Wilkinson; Joana Rolo; Sarah Lamble; James E. Bray; Keith A. Jolley; William P. Hanage; Rory Bowden; Martin C.J. Maiden; Dietrich Mack; Hermínia de Lenca...; Edward J. Feil; Jukka Corander; Samuel K. Sheppard
• Keywords: Horizontal Gene Transfer; SCCmec; Multilocus sequence typing; Pathogenicity island

The opportunistic pathogens Staphylococcus aureus and epidermidis represent major causes of severe nosocomial infection, are associated with high levels mortality morbidity worldwide. These species both common commensals on the human skin in nasal pharynx, but genetically distinct, differing at 24% average nucleotide divergence 1,478 core genes. To better understand genome dynamics these ecologically similar staphylococcal species, we carried out a comparative analysis 324 S. genomes, including 83 novel sequences. A reference pan-genome approach whole multilocus-sequence typing revealed that around half was shared between species. Based BratNextGen analysis, homologous recombination found to have impacted 40% genes epidermidis, only aureus. Homologous is rare, maximum nine gene alleles any two isolates. In contrast, there considerable interspecies admixture mobile elements, particular SaPIn1 pathogenicity island, metal detoxification, methicillin-resistance island SCCmec. Our data provide context for considering nature recombinational boundaries and, selective forces influence realized