Genome analysis reveals the potential health risks conferred by an eggplant-associated Pseudomonas aeruginosa PPA14
Article
Sakthivel, A, Castellanos, C, Govindasamy, P et al. (2022). Genome analysis reveals the potential health risks conferred by an eggplant-associated Pseudomonas aeruginosa PPA14
. 4(5), po0721. 10.1099/acmi.ac2021.po0071
Sakthivel, A, Castellanos, C, Govindasamy, P et al. (2022). Genome analysis reveals the potential health risks conferred by an eggplant-associated Pseudomonas aeruginosa PPA14
. 4(5), po0721. 10.1099/acmi.ac2021.po0071
Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a Gram-negative bacterium predominantly found in soil, water bodies, moist surfaces, plants, animals, and humans. Patients with chronic pulmonary diseases, and medical implants, are highly prone to hospital-acquired P. aeruginosa infection. The agricultural ecosystem is one of the vast reservoirs of P. aeruginosa. However, there were limited attempts to analyze the health risks associated with plant-associated P. aeruginosa (PPA). We have previously assessed the in vitro resistome profiles of 18 P. aeruginosa strains isolated from edible vegetables. Among these, an eggplant rhizospheric strain PPA14 exhibited resistance against seven classes of antibiotics. In this study, we sequenced this strain using the Solexa-Illumina and Oxford-Nanopore platforms, assembled and annotated the complete genome. The PPA14 genome size was 6.72 Mbp, encoding 6322 open reading frames. The genome harbored 49 antibiotic resistance genes, including those coding for multiple families of efflux pumps that collectively confer resistance against at least 11 classes of antibiotics. In addition, we detected 225 virulence-related genes and 83 genomic islands that were potentially acquired through horizontal gene transfer. Over 4% of the PPA14 genome is devoted to conferring virulence and extensive drug resistance. Our report highlights the health-threat associated with the P. aeruginosa flourishing in the agricultural ecosystem.
