Acta Veterinaria et Zootechnica Sinica ›› 2023, Vol. 54 ›› Issue (1): 338-350.doi: 10.11843/j.issn.0366-6964.2023.01.031

• BASIC VETERINARY MEDICINE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Prevalence and Transduction of Prophages in Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus ST9 of Swine Origin

JIANG Nansong1,2, JI Xing1, WANG Yaxin1, SUN Chengtao1, WANG Yang1, CHEN Hongmei2, CHENG Longfei2, HUANG Yu2, WU Congming1*   

  1. 1. College of Veterinary Medicine, China Agricultural University, Beijing 100193, China;
    2. Animal Disease Control Technology Center, Institute of Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine, Fujian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Fuzhou 350013, China
  • Received:2022-07-07 Online:2023-01-23 Published:2023-01-17

Abstract: The study aimed to analysis the prevalence, structural characteristics and transduction ability of prophages in porcine methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) ST9, and to explore the role of prophages in the formation of porcine MRSA epidemic clones. Based on whole genome sequences, we analyzed the prevalence, typing, phylogeny, and structural characteristics of prophages in 131 MRSA ST9 strains isolated from several provinces of China in recent years. Strains with prophages of various types were selected to be induced into phage particles which were then performed transduction experiment. We determined the antimicrobial resistance and in vitro fitness cost of the transductants. The results showed that the carriage rate of prophages in porcine MRSA ST9 was 78.6% (103/131), of which 63 isolates carried prophages with complete structure. None of prophage harbored resistance gene, while only 2.9% sequences (3/103) carried virulence genes. The profiles of prophages were abundant, of which the integrase typing were mainly Sa2int and Sa4int. Different types of prophages had high structural homology, and the complete prophages could be induced into Siphoviridae. Resistance genes aadD and tet(L) of donor strains could be packaged into phage particles and transduced to recipient strain. The transductants acquired resistance phenotypes to kanamycin and tetracycline, while the growth ability of transductants had no significant difference with the recipient strains in vitro (P>0.05). These results indicated that the prophages of porcine ST9 MRSA have high carriage rate, various types, and do not carry resistance gene. Resistance genes of donor strains could be packaged and transduced into recipient strains by part of phages, resulting in little fitness costs.

Key words: porcine, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, ST9, prophage, transduction

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