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Extent of Virulence and Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Helicobacter pylori and Campylobacteria

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Abstract

Helicobacter pylori, a member of the clade campylobacteria, is the leading cause of chronic gastritis and gastric cancer. Virulence and antibiotic resistance of H. pylori are of great concern to public health. However, the relationship between virulence and antibiotic resistance genes in H. pylori in relation to other campylobacteria remains unclear. Using the virulence and comprehensive antibiotic resistance databases, we explored all available 354 complete genomes of H. pylori and compared it with 90 species of campylobacteria for virulence and antibiotic resistance genes/proteins. On average, H. pylori had 129 virulence genes, highest among Helicobacter spp. and 71 antibiotic resistance genes, one of the lowest among campylobacteria. Just 2.6% of virulence genes were shared by all campylobacterial members, whereas 9.4% were unique to H. pylori. The cytotoxin-associated genes (cags) seemed to be exclusive to H. pylori. Majority of the isolates from Asia and South America were cag2-negative and many antibiotic resistance genes showed isolate-specific patterns of occurrence. Just 15 (8.8%) antibiotic resistance genes, but 103 (66%) virulence genes including 25 cags were proteomically identified in H. pylori. Arcobacterial members showed large variation in the number of antibiotic resistance genes and there was a positive relation with the genome size. Large repository of antibiotic resistance genes in campylobacteria and a unique set of virulence genes might have important implications in sha** the course of virulence and antibiotic resistance in H. pylori.

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Data Availability

The sequence data used in this work were obtained from NCBI. The relevant derived data are given in the supplemental result tables accessible at https://osf.io/rmd9y/.

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Acknowledgements

NA gratefully acknowledges the initial funding support from the OU VPRP office for the establishment of the Proteomics Core Facility.

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  1. Larina Pinto

    Present address: School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Bioinformatics, NITTE Deemed to be University, Mangaluru, 575018, India

    R. Shyama Prasad Rao, Sudeep D. Ghate & Larina Pinto

  2. Amrita School of Biotechnology, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, Clappana, Kerala, 690525, India

    Prashanth Suravajhala

  3. Central Research Laboratory, KS Hegde Medical Academy (KSHEMA), NITTE Deemed to be University, Mangaluru, 575018, India

    Prakash Patil & Praveenkumar Shetty

  4. Department of Biochemistry, KS Hegde Medical Academy (KSHEMA), NITTE Deemed to be University, Mangaluru, 575018, India

    Praveenkumar Shetty

  5. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Nagib Ahsan

  6. Mass Spectrometry, Proteomics and Metabolomics Core Facility, Stephenson Life Sciences Research Center, The University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Nagib Ahsan

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RSPR and SDG planned and performed the work, and wrote the manuscript. LP helped in data curation. All authors contributed intellectually, and edited/reviewed the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Rao, R.S.P., Ghate, S.D., Pinto, L. et al. Extent of Virulence and Antibiotic Resistance Genes in Helicobacter pylori and Campylobacteria. Curr Microbiol 81, 154 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-024-03653-5

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