Diversity of Group I and II Clostridium botulinum strains from France Including Recently Identified Subtypes.

Christelle Mazuet (1) , Christine Legeay (1) , Jean Sautereau (1) , Laurence Ma (2) , Christiane Bouchier (2) , Philippe Bouvet (1) , Michel R Popoff (1)

1 Bactéries anaérobies et Toxines
2 Génomique (Plate-Forme) - Genomics Platform

In France, human botulism is mainly food-borne intoxication, whereas infant botulism is rare. A total of 99 group I and II C. botulinum strains including 59 type A (12 historical isolates (1947-1961), 43 from France (1986-2013), 3 from other countries and one collection strain), 31 type B (3 historical, 23 recent isolates, 4 from other countries and one collection strain), and 9 type E (5 historical, 3 isolates, and one collection strain) were investigated by botulinum locus gene sequencing and MLST analysis. Historical C. botulinum A strains mainly belonged to subtype A1 and sequence type (ST) 1, whereas recent strains exhibited a wide genetic diversity: subtype A1 in orfX or ha locus, A1(B), A1(F), A2, A2b2, A5(B2') A5(B3'), as well as the recently identified A7 and A8 subtypes, and were distributed into 25 STs. C. botulinum A1(B) was the most frequent subtype from food borne botulism and food. Group I C. botulinum type B in France were mainly subtype B2 (14 out of 20 historical and recent strains) and were divided into 19 STs. Food borne botulism resulting from ham consumption during the recent period was due to group II C. botulinum B4. Type E botulism is rare in France, 5 historical and one recent strains were subtype E3. A subtype E12 was recently identified from an unusual ham contamination. C. botulinum strains from human botulism in France showed a wide genetic diversity and seems to result not from a single evolutionary lineage but from multiple and independent genetic rearrangements.

Mots clés: Clostridium botulinum; botulism; multi-locus sequence typing; whole genome sequencing

Domaines: Bactériologie

Christelle Mazuet, Christine Legeay, Jean Sautereau, Laurence Ma, Christiane Bouchier, et al.. Diversity of Group I and II Clostridium botulinum strains from France Including Recently Identified Subtypes.. Genome Biology and Evolution, 2016, ⟨10.1093/gbe/evw101⟩. ⟨pasteur-01325752⟩