Agricultural intensification and the evolution of host specialism in the enteric pathogen Campylobacter jejuni
Open Access
- 3 May 2020
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Vol. 117 (20), 11018-11028
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1917168117
Abstract
Modern agriculture has dramatically changed the distribution of animal species on Earth. Changes to host ecology have a major impact on the microbiota, potentially increasing the risk of zoonotic pathogens being transmitted to humans, but the impact of intensive livestock production on host-associated bacteria has rarely been studied. Here, we use large isolate collections and comparative genomics techniques, linked to phenotype studies, to understand the timescale and genomic adaptations associated with the proliferation of the most common food-born bacterial pathogen (Campylobacter jejuni) in the most prolific agricultural mammal (cattle). Our findings reveal the emergence of cattle specialist C. jejuni lineages from a background of host generalist strains that coincided with the dramatic rise in cattle numbers in the 20th century. Cattle adaptation was associated with horizontal gene transfer and significant gene gain and loss. This may be related to differences in host diet, anatomy, and physiology, leading to the proliferation of globally disseminated cattle specialists of major public health importance. This work highlights how genomic plasticity can allow important zoonotic pathogens to exploit altered niches in the face of anthropogenic change and provides information for mitigating some of the risks posed by modern agricultural systems.Funding Information
- RCUK | Medical Research Council (MR/L015080/1)
- Wellcome (088786/C/09/Z)
- RCUK | Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/I02464X/1)
This publication has 88 references indexed in Scilit:
- Zoonosis emergence linked to agricultural intensification and environmental changeProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013
- New World cattle show ancestry from multiple independent domestication eventsProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2013
- ProOpDB: Prokaryotic Operon DataBaseNucleic Acids Research, 2011
- Structural diversity of bacterial flagellar motorsThe EMBO Journal, 2011
- New Algorithms and Methods to Estimate Maximum-Likelihood Phylogenies: Assessing the Performance of PhyML 3.0Systematic Biology, 2010
- Helicobacter pylori moves through mucus by reducing mucin viscoelasticityProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2009
- CampylobacterGenotyping to Determine the Source of Human InfectionClinical Infectious Diseases, 2009
- Rapid Evolution and the Importance of Recombination to the Gastroenteric Pathogen Campylobacter jejuniMolecular Biology and Evolution, 2008
- Molecular Epidemiology of Campylobacter jejuni Populations in Dairy Cattle, Wildlife, and the Environment in a Farmland AreaApplied and Environmental Microbiology, 2008
- Changes in flagellin glycosylation affect Campylobacter autoagglutination and virulenceMolecular Microbiology, 2006