Novel Plasmids and Resistance Phenotypes in Yersinia pestis: Unique Plasmid Inventory of Strain Java 9 Mediates High Levels of Arsenic Resistance

Journal Article · Fri Mar 30 00:00:00 EDT 2012 · PLoS ONE

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0032911· OSTI ID:1627503

Eppinger, Mark ^[1]; Radnedge, Lyndsay ^[2]; Andersen, Gary ^[2]; Vietri, Nicholas ^[3]; Severson, Grant ^[4]; Mou, Sherry ^[4]; Ravel, Jacques ^[5]; Worsham, Patricia L. ^[4]

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1. Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD (United States). School of Medicine, Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology and Inst. for Genome Sciences; DOE/OSTI
2. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
3. U.S. Army Medical Research Inst. of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, MD (United States). Bacteriology Division
4. U.S. Army Medical Research Inst. of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, MD (United States). Bacteriology Division
5. Univ. of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC), Baltimore, MD (United States). School of Medicine, Dept. of Microbiology and Immunology and Inst. for Genome Sciences

Growing evidence suggests that the plasmid repertoire of Yersinia pestis is not restricted to the three classical virulence plasmids. The Java 9 strain of Y. pestis is a biovar Orientalis isolate obtained from a rat in Indonesia. Although it lacks the Y. pestis-specific plasmid pMT, which encodes the F1 capsule, it retains virulence in mouse and non-human primate animal models. While comparing diverse Y. pestis strains using subtractive hybridization, we identified sequences in Java 9 that were homologous to a Y. enterocolitica strain carrying the transposon Tn2502, which is known to encode arsenic resistance. Here we demonstrate that Java 9 exhibits high levels of arsenic and arsenite resistance mediated by a novel promiscuous class II transposon, named Tn2503. Arsenic resistance was self-transmissible from Java 9 to other Y. pestis strains via conjugation. Genomic analysis of the atypical plasmid inventory of Java 9 identified pCD and pPCP plasmids of atypical size and two previously uncharacterized cryptic plasmids. Unlike the Tn2502-mediated arsenic resistance encoded on the Y. enterocolitica virulence plasmid; the resistance loci in Java 9 are found on all four indigenous plasmids, including the two novel cryptic plasmids. This unique mobilome introduces more than 105 genes into the species gene pool. The majority of these are encoded by the two entirely novel self-transmissible plasmids, which show partial homology and synteny to other enterics. In contrast to the reductive evolution in Y. pestis, this study underlines the major impact of a dynamic mobilome and lateral acquisition in the genome evolution of the plague bacterium.

• Research Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA); National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID); National Institutes of Health (NIH); US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); US Department of the Army; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Biological Systems Science Division
• Grant/Contract Number: AC52-07NA27344
• OSTI ID: 1627503
• Journal Information: PLoS ONE, Journal Name: PLoS ONE Journal Issue: 3 Vol. 7; ISSN 1932-6203
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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