Publikationsdatenbank

On the ecology of Acinetobacter baumannii – jet stream rider and opportunist by nature (2024)

Art

Zeitschriftenartikel / wissenschaftlicher Beitrag

Autoren

Wilharm, Gottfried

Skiebe, Evelyn

Łopińska, Andżelina

Higgins, Paul G.

Weber, Kristin

Schaudinn, Christoph

Neugebauer, Christof

Görlitz, Katharina

Meimers, Gideon

Rizova, Yana

Blaschke, Ulrike

Heider, Christine

Cuny, Christiane

Drewes, Stephan

Heuser, Elisa

Jeske, Kathrin

Jacob, Jens

Ulrich, Rainer G.

Bochenski, Marcin

Kasprzak, Mariusz

Burda, Ewa

Ciepliński, Mateusz

Kaługa, Ireneusz

Jankowiak, Łukasz

Aguirre, José I.

López-García, Alejandro

Höfle, Ursula

Jagiello, Zuzanna

Tobółka, Marcin

Janic, Bartosz

Zieliński, Piotr

Kamiński, Maciej

Frisch, Johannes

Siekiera, Joachim

Wendel, Andreas F.

Brauner, Paul

Jäckel, Udo

Kaatz, Michael

Müller, Stefanie (WE 7)

Lübke-Becker, Antina (WE 7)

Wieler, Lothar H (WE 7)

von Wachsmann, Johanna

Thrukonda, Lakshmipriya

Helal, Mustafa

Epping, Lennard

Wolf, Silver A.

Semmler, Torsten

Jerzak, Leszek

Quelle

bioRxiv beta : the preprint server for biology

Bandzählung: PrePrint!

Seiten: 1 – 55

ISSN: 2692-8205

Sprache

Englisch

Verweise

URL (Volltext): https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.01.15.572815v1

DOI: 10.1101/2024.01.15.572815

Kontakt

Institut für Mikrobiologie und Tierseuchen

Robert-von-Ostertag-Str. 7-13
14163 Berlin
+49 30 838 51843 / 66949
mikrobiologie@vetmed.fu-berlin.de

Abstract / Zusammenfassung

The natural reservoirs of the nosocomial pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii are not well defined. We previously identified white storks as a model system to study the ecology of A. baumannii. Having screened more than 1,300 white stork nestlings over a period of six years across different regions of Poland and Germany (overall isolation rate of ∼29.5%), including food chain analyses and environmental samplings, we come up with a detailed picture of the dynamics and diversity of A. baumannii in their natural habitats. Adult storks, rather than being stably colonized with strains of A. baumannii which are successively transferred to their offspring, instead initially encounter these bacteria while foraging. Among their common food sources, consisting of earthworms, small mammals, and insects, we identified earthworms as a potential source of A. baumannii, but more so the associated soil as well as plant roots. Through this, hotspot soil and compost habitats were identified which enable population dynamics to be studied over the course of the year. We demonstrate that sterilized plant material is rapidly colonized by airborne A. baumannii suggesting they patrol to search for novel habitats, being opportunist by nature. The prevalence of A. baumannii exhibited a strong seasonality and peaked during summer. The strains we collected in Poland and Germany represent more than 50% of the worldwide known diversity in terms of the intrinsic OXA-51-like β-lactamase. A set of ∼400 genomes was determined and compared to a diverse set of publicly available genomes. Our pan-genome estimate of the species (∼51,000 unique genes) more than doubles the amount proposed by previous studies. Core-genome based phylogenetic analyses illustrated numerous links between wildlife isolates and hospital strains, including ancient as well as recent intercontinental transfer. Our data further suggest massive radiation within the species early after its emergence, matching with human activity during the Neolithic. Deforestation in particular seemed to set the stage for this bloom as we found that forests do not provide conducive conditions for the proliferation of A. baumannii. In contrast, wet and nutrient-rich soil alongside rivers sampled during the summer can yield an isolation rate of ∼30%. Linking published work on the interaction between A. baumannii and fungi and on aspergillosis as a major cause of mortality in white stork nestlings to our findings, we hypothesized that fungi and A. baumannii share a long history of coevolution. Interaction studies revealed the capability of A. baumannii to adhere to fungal spores and to suppress spore germination. Taken together, the intrinsic resistance endowment and potential to acquire antibiotic resistance can be explained by coevolution with antibiotic-producing fungi and other microorganisms within soil, and resistance to desiccation stress and radiation can be interpreted in the light of intercontinental hitchhiking through fungal spores.