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ToolsLamberte, Lisa E., Darby, Elizabeth M., Kiu, Raymond, Moran, Robert A., Acuna-Gonzalez, Antia, Sim, Kathleen, Shaw, Alexander G., Kroll, J. Simon, Belteki, Gusztav, Clarke, Paul, Felgate, Heather, Webber, Mark A., Rowe, William, Hall, Lindsay J. and Van Schaik, Willem (2025) Staphylococcus haemolyticus is a reservoir of antibiotic resistance genes in the preterm infant gut. Gut Microbes, 17 (1). ISSN 1949-0976
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Abstract
Staphylococcus haemolyticus is an important cause of sepsis in preterm infants, with gut colonization being recognized as a risk factor for infection. To better understand the diversity of S. haemolyticus among preterm infants, we generated genome sequences of S. haemolyticus strains (n = 140) from 44 stool samples of 22 preterm infants from four hospitals in England. Core genome phylogenetic analyses, incorporating 126 publicly available S. haemolyticus genome sequences, showed that 85/140 (60.1%) of the isolates, from three different hospitals, formed a clonal group with 78/85 (91.7%) strains having Multi-Locus Sequence Type (ST) 49. Antibiotic resistance genes were prevalent in the genomes. There was a strong association between the presence of mecA and phenotypic resistance to oxacillin, and the aacA-aphD gene and phenotypic resistance to gentamicin. While mecA was near-ubiquitous, none of the strains from the preterm infant cohort had a complete Staphylococcal Cassette Chromosome mec (SCCmec) element. The aacA-aphD gene was associated with the transposon Tn4001 in multiple chromosomal and plasmid contexts. Our data suggest the existence of a distinct sub-population of S. haemolyticus that has adapted to colonize the gut of preterm infants, and widespread horizontal gene transfer and recombination among this frequent colonizer of the preterm infant gut.
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Additional Information: | Data availability statement: Raw sequencing reads generated in this study are available at the European Nucleotide Archive (BioProject PRJNA1105567; https://www.ebi.ac.uk/ena/browser/view/PRJNA1105567). Funding Information: L.E.L, W.R, L.J.H, and W.v.S. were supported by the BBSRC Responsive Mode Grant BB/S017941/1. L.J.H. was supported by Wellcome Trust Investigator Awards 100/974/C/13/Z and 220540/Z/20/A. The NeoM project has been funded by grants to J.S.K. from The Winnicott Foundation [P26859] and Meningitis UK [P35505]. Work at Imperial Healthcare NICUs was supported by a programme grant from the Winnicott Foundation to J.S.K. and the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre based at Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust and Imperial College London. K.S. was funded by an NIHR Doctoral Research Fellowship [NIHR-DRF-2011-04-128]. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | antibiotic resistance,gut microbiota,microbial evolution,microbial genomics,neonates,staphylococcus,microbiology,microbiology (medical),gastroenterology,infectious diseases,sdg 3 - good health and well-being ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2400/2404 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Norwich Medical School |
| UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences > Research Centres > Metabolic Health |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 11 Aug 2025 09:30 |
| Last Modified: | 13 Aug 2025 01:18 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/100118 |
| DOI: | 10.1080/19490976.2025.2519700 |
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