IBR   13079
INSTITUTO DE BIOLOGIA MOLECULAR Y CELULAR DE ROSARIO
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
artículos
Título:
Microevolution in the major outer membrane protein OmpA of Acinetobacter baumannii
Autor/es:
EVANS, BENJAMIN A.; VIALE, ALEJANDRO M.
Revista:
Microbial Genomics
Editorial:
Microbiology Society
Referencias:
Lugar: Londres; Año: 2020
Resumen:
Acinetobacter baumannii is nowadays a relevant nosocomial pathogen characterized by multidrug resistance (MDR) and concomitantdifficulties to treat infections. OmpA is the most abundant A. baumannii outer membrane (OM) protein, and is involvedin virulence, host-cellrecognition, biofilm formation, regulation of OM stability, permeability and antibiotic resistance. OmpAmembers are two‐domain proteins with an N‐terminal eight‐stranded β‐barrel domain with four external loops (ELs) interactingwith the environment, and a C‐terminal periplasmic domain binding non‐covalently to the peptidoglycan. Here, we combineddata from genome sequencing, phylogenetic and multilocus sequence analyses from 975 strains/isolates of the Acinetobactercalcoaceticus/Acinetobacter baumannii complex (ACB), 946 from A. baumannii, to explore ompA microevolutionary divergence.Five major ompA variant groups were identified (V1 to V5) in A. baumannii, encompassing 52 different alleles coding for 23different proteins. Polymorphisms were concentrated in five regions corresponding to the four ELs and the C‐terminal end,and provided evidence for intra‐genic recombination. ompA variants were not randomly distributed across the A. baumanniiphylogeny, with the most frequent V1(lct)a1 allele found in most clonal complex 2 (CC2) strains and the second most frequentV2(lct)a1 allele in the majority of CC1 strains. Evidence was found for assortative exchanges of ompA alleles not only betweenseparate A. baumannii lineages, but also different ACB species. The overall results have implications for A. baumannii evolution,epidemiology, virulence and vaccine design.