Poster Presentation Australian Society for Microbiology Annual Scientific Meeting 2017

Comparative genomic analysis of various Salmonella enterica serotypes in Singapore (#230)

Gurjeet S Kohli 1 , Yichen C Ding 1 , Seow Fong Chin 1 , Florentin Constancias 1 , Aaron Darling 2 , Kathryn E Holt 3 , Jorgen Schlundt 4 , Michael Givskov 1 5 , Liang Yang 1 6
  1. Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  2. The ithree institute, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
  3. Centre for Systems Genomics and Dept Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  4. School of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
  5. Costerton Biofilm Center, Department of International Health, Immunology and Microbiology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark
  6. School Of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

Foodborne illnesses are increasingly recognized as an important public health issue in both developed and developing countries due to the changes in global food production, processing, distribution and preparation. The Ministry of Health, Singapore (MOH) estimates that about 100,000 people seek medical care due to acute diarrheal illnesses annually and up to 90% of these illnesses are caused by pathogenic foodborne microbial agents such as Salmonella in Singapore. Non-typhoidal salmonellosis is one of the most common bacterial foodborne diseases in Singapore (incidence rate at 32.1 cases per 100,000) however the transmission pattern of Salmonella in Singapore remains unclear. Understanding these patterns, including attribution to food source, will greatly facilitate the control of Salmonella in food and reduce the disease burden of salmonellosis. In this study, we assessed the evolutionary diversity of 64 Salmonella strains isolated from various sources (food-45, human-7, unknown-12) in Singapore using whole genome sequencing generated by Illumina Hi-Seq and Mi-Seq platforms. rMLST analysis identified the presence of following Salmonella enterica Serovars: Saintpaul (19), Brancaster (8), Typhimurium (7), Albany (5), Enteritidis (5), Stanley (5), Gaminara (3), Michigan (3), Newport (3), Agona (2), Bovismorbificans (1), Heidelberg (1), Mbandaka (1) and Weltevreden (1). Additionally, we determined the complete sequence for the chromosome of 5 most abundant serovars (Saintpaul, Brancaster, Typhimurium, Albany and Stanley) using the Pacific Biosciences (PacBio) system. Our analysis show that many isolates have aquired various antibiotic resisance genes such as: alpha(4)-la, aadA1, aac(3)-IVa (Aminoglycoside); blaTEM-1B (Beta-lactam); QnrS1 (Fluoroquinolone); mph(A) (Macrolide, Lincosamide and Streptogramin B); floR(Phenicol).