Identification and whole-genome sequencing of blood-brain barrier-penetrating Riemerella anatipestifer isolated from chickens and ducks.
- 1Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, 271017, China; Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Zoonoses, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, 271017, China.
- 2Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, 271017, China; Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Zoonoses, Shandong Agricultural University, Tai'an, 271017, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
Abstract
Riemerella anatipestifer (RA) is a major cause of bacterial meningitis, which poses a serious threat to the poultry industry. To identify RA strains with a strong ability to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and analyze their genomic characteristics, a co-infection model was established using multiple RA strains with different serotypes in this study. We found that during co-infection with multiple RA strains, certain RA strains rapidly penetrated the BBB and were recovered from brain tissue as early as 0.25 h post-infection. The pioneer strains were selected to further evaluate their BBB-penetrating capacity and pathogenicity in vivo and in vitro. Whole-genome sequencing of three pioneer strains and one RA strain that couldn't penetrate the BBB revealed that these strains had circular chromosomes of 2.14-2.28 Mb, encoding 1,982-2,137 protein-coding genes. All strains carried 40 tRNA genes and 9 rRNA genes, and contained 9-15 genomic islands. Comparative genomic analysis revealed variation in orthogroup composition among the four strains, with strain-specific distributions of resistance genes (24-29 per strain) and virulence genes (4-57 strain-specific genes), alongside variable transposon and IS element profiles. Comparative genomic analysis further uncovered strain-specific distributions of virulence and antibiotic resistance genes, underscoring the genomic plasticity among these isolates. In summary, these findings provide a comprehensive phenotypic and genomic characterization of RA strains with strong BBB-penetrating ability, providing a foundation for future mechanistic studies on RA BBB penetration.
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BibTeX
@article{li2026identification,
title = {{Identification and whole-genome sequencing of blood-brain barrier-penetrating Riemerella anatipestifer isolated from chickens and ducks.}},
author = {Xinran Li and Ying Cheng and Shiqian Dang and Jiawei Wang and Kaisu Yang and Haonan Guo and Ruihua Zhang and Shijin Jiang and Yu Meng},
journal = {Poultry science},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1016/j.psj.2026.107944},
url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42893651},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Identification and whole-genome sequencing of blood-brain barrier-penetrating Riemerella anatipestifer isolated from chickens and ducks.
AU - Xinran Li
AU - Ying Cheng
AU - Shiqian Dang
AU - Jiawei Wang
AU - Kaisu Yang
AU - Haonan Guo
AU - Ruihua Zhang
AU - Shijin Jiang
AU - Yu Meng
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/11
JO - Poultry science
DO - 10.1016/j.psj.2026.107944
UR - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42893651
AB - Riemerella anatipestifer (RA) is a major cause of bacterial meningitis, which poses a serious threat to the poultry industry. To identify RA strains with a strong ability to cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and analyze their genomic characteristics, a co-infection model was established using multiple RA strains with different serotypes in this study. We found that during co-infection with multiple RA strains, certain RA strains rapidly penetrated the BBB and were recovered from brain tissue as early as 0.25 h post-infection. The pioneer strains were selected to further evaluate their BBB-penetrating capacity and pathogenicity in vivo and in vitro. Whole-genome sequencing of three pioneer strains and one RA strain that couldn't penetrate the BBB revealed that these strains had circular chromosomes of 2.14-2.28 Mb, encoding 1,982-2,137 protein-coding genes. All strains carried 40 tRNA genes and 9 rRNA genes, and contained 9-15 genomic islands. Comparative genomic analysis revealed variation in orthogroup composition among the four strains, with strain-specific distributions of resistance genes (24-29 per strain) and virulence genes (4-57 strain-specific genes), alongside variable transposon and IS element profiles. Comparative genomic analysis further uncovered strain-specific distributions of virulence and antibiotic resistance genes, underscoring the genomic plasticity among these isolates. In summary, these findings provide a comprehensive phenotypic and genomic characterization of RA strains with strong BBB-penetrating ability, providing a foundation for future mechanistic studies on RA BBB penetration.
SN - 0032-5791
SN - 1525-3171
ER -